Asparagus

I bought a few small Asparagus plants from the garden centre and dropped them in the ground in April.  My research tells me that I won't be able to take a decent crop from these plants for at least a couple of years.  Until then, the plants just need to grow bigger and build up their strength, so not much point in me keeping strict tabs on them.  Stupidly, I did not keep the label, so again have no idea what type of asparagus this will be.

Asparagus a few weeks after planting

Asparagus 

They seem to have settled in fairly well and some of the plants are even sending up more little shoots, like in the photo below.

Young asparagus plant a few weeks after being bought from the garden centre

The older shoots have all turned to a type of fern, which from my limited research, then enables the plant to build up it's strength.

This will really be a test of patience, having to wait several years to take the first decent asparagus crop, although I'll likely take a few sneaky stems next year.

I'm taking comfort from the fact that each plant should eventually send up about 20 to 25 shoots a year, and with 6 plants in my row, that's plenty of asparagus for us every year.  The best bit, is that once the long wait for the first crop is over, it is the easiest vegetable there is, it just keeps cropping up again year after year!

Ideally I'd love a bed of perennial vegetables like this, but I'm not sure any other plants work like this.