Get the best from asparagus

Asparagus is a perennial flowering plant species that may support a healthy gut, as well as help to lower blood pressure.

- ANNE SWITHINBANK

Q Having taken on a new allotment, we were surprised and delighted to find an established asparagus bed. How should we maintain it?
Patricia Dunn, Nantwich, Cheshire 

A This perennial veg is long-lived, and if it is well-cared for it should deliver tasty spears for years to come. Most of us have had to order our dormant crowns and prepare a well-drained, sunny bed by digging in or spreading lots of well-rotted garden compost.

Arriving in spring, the crowns are planted immediately, usually by the traditional method of digging trenches and making ridges along them. The crowns are sat on the ridges, so their fleshy roots can drape outwards and downwards with no breaking or coiling. The aim is to have them 15in (38cm) apart in rows 20in (50cm) apart, with growth buds just at the surface.