We have just ordered five crowns of Asparagus Gijnlim. I have been reading up about this vegetable which I have eaten for the first time ever and quite enjoyed. Apparently if you can get a bed established it could give you a harvest for up to twenty years. The crowns were £1.50 each and delivery is free. We have a raised bed that we could build up a little more and with a little magic from the rotavator and a barrow load of good compost mixed with a bit of sand we may be on to a winner.

Gijnlim is an early season Asparagus, a high yielding male variety producing medium thick, mid-green spears with closed purple tips. Support may be needed for the stems of the tall growing ferns. The asparagus stems will go yellow in the autumn, cut off at ground level in the following Spring. Water well in dry weather. Keep the bed tidy by pulling weeds by hand. Around February/March time give the bed a dressing of general fertiliser. After the cropping season give the asparagus plants a mulch of rotted compost or manure.