"Kevin Markland" wrote in
:

We are planning to start growing a few vegetables in our garden and
I'd like to grow those things that are either expensive in the shops
or really benefit from being fresh from the ground. Asparagus seems to
fit the bill on both counts but on reading about it it seems
incredibly difficult to get established and a long time before you get
a useful crop. Are there any shortcuts I can take, such as buying or
begging established crowns? As an aside are there any must haves that
are vastly better when eaten fresh from the garden? We only have a
small plot about 30 feet by 15 feet so it has to work quite hard.

Might be worth finding out what other people roundabout are growing:
then you can do swops : whatever you choose to produce you will probably
end up with some surplus.

Assuming your plot is fenced or walled, don't miss the opportunity for
using all that vertical space.

Lots of fruiting climbers - maybe a cultivated blackberry (some are also
very decorative), or you can grow raspberries up walls and fences, and
runner beans take up very little space if you grow them over a fence or
through a hedge, and do taste better when really fresh.

I am growing actinidia arguta 'issai' through one of my hedges atm -
it's a self-fertile, sweet hairless kiwifruit with lots of tiny fruit
like large grapes, which you certainly can't get in our local
supermarkets.

Good luck with the asparagus: I planted mine last year, and in theory
should be getting some usable spears next year, though given that the
plants got a bit slugged in spring, I think I may have to wait another
season for a real crop.

Discussion here in the past has suggested that asparagus particularly
likes bonfire ash and lighter sandy soil, so I am growing mine in the
excavations of an ancient bonfire heap.

Oh, although you did say you wanted to grow 'valuables', if you have a
grotty north-facing corner or awkward spot, fill it with rotted horse
manure and bung in a rhubarb. They take almost no looking after and
will grow in places most fruit and veg would disdain, if well fed. They
will also survive (nay, enjoy!) winter waterlogging.

Victoria