Asparagus

Hello i am wanting to grow asparagus but we do have some wild rabbits around us before i invest in the crowns can i check if anyone has any experience in wild rabbits easting their asparagus or if there is any varieties etc that they would recommend to put the blighters off!

 

Regardless of whether the rabbits eat asparagus I'd be looking to fence as much as possible of my garden from the rabbits.
On the plus side set a trap from time to time and have a free meal.

 

One of the first veg we planted back in 1978 was asparagus. It did very well for many years and then...stopped. Tried again some years later but we had to use chicken wire around the 2 main veg areas because of rabbits. It has stopped them but the asparagus has taken a long time to get going again (obviously new crowns). Worth growing? They need a long time to produce what you can eat but then when they do and you pluck your own...WOW.

 

Asparagus need about three years from planting to produce reasonable numbers of spears.
They also won't stand sitting in wet soil over winter, so they need free draining soil and are traditionally planted on a bit of a mound.

 

you can force them like germans do as "spargel" if you have the effort. rabbits cant get the shoots if theyre under a pot
but you need to let some grow into full stems even in harvesting years

 

I’m thinking of starting some in a raised bed on my Lawn. Is that a good idea? At least it would be easy to “fence off” ….

 

@glosmike you'll need quite a large raised bed to give you a reasonable crop. Each crown will throw one or two stems at a time, so to get a decent feed without having to keep them in the fridge waiting, you'll need a good number. I used to have more than 30 crowns in a big bed which I also used for strawberries interplanted. They cropped for at least 15 years.