Now is the time of year to plant asparagus!

Why I grow asparagus

• It's delicioius
  • It's a perennial that should last a couple of decades.
    • Plant once, harvest year after year!!!

2 steps:

1. Make the raised bed
2. Plant the asparagus

Here's the final result

Creating a raised bed

I got lucky on this raised bed.
I had some round metal used for animal feeders laying around.
These just happened to be the perfect size.

• 56 inches in diameter
• each piece about 20 inches tall

Placement
Traditional recommended trenching

When planting bareroot crowns in the spring, prepare a trench 8 inches deep.
Spread crowns over the soil and cover them with 2 inches of soil.
Gradually fill the trench with soil as the plants grow

I have about 6" of top soil on clay.

• So I dug down to the clay around the bed.
  • Plant the crowns on inside, on 6 inches of soil...
    • Add about 3 inches of soil.
• Leaves me with room to fill in soil as they start growing.

As luck would have it, I wasn't sure which of the 3 outbuilding my level would be in
(we just moved here January 1st and haven't had time to organize these yet...)

• This doesn't have to be perfect, so I thought up a a good enough level
  • a board and a jar of water

It worked good enough for me!

Planting the asparagus

Picking a variety

I chose AsparaBest® Asparagus

Harvest lots more spears—without sacrificing flavor. AsparaBest truly lives up to its name! Its predominantly male plants produce little to no seed and 2 to 3 times more spears than popular Jersey varieties. And, the purple-tipped green spears have an excellent flavor. Developed at an Ontario, Canada University, the late-emerging AsparaBest is unmatched for cold tolerance, but regardless of your climate this delicious variety will produce longer than all other asparagus varieties on the market!

• Good for zones 3 - 8 (2 with Winter protection).
• Botanical Name: Asparagus officinalis 'UG-9'

Did you know… AsparaBest Asparagus won the 2015 Green Thumb Award from the Direct Gardening Association—this variety is known for more spears, excellent flavor and cold-hardiness. Produces up to 3 Times More Spears!

Trixie decided to help by digging a hole over there.

• Good gurl
  • ::shrug:: haha

Fertilizer:
When planting is the best time to apply fertilizer, especially phosphorus.
I chose Gurney's® Asparagus Food 4-3-1

• Here's the label

This bag was 3 pints. I need to fertilize now, when it starts growing and at the end of season, so this worked out perfect.

• I spread 1 pint of fertilizer and worked it in with a rake.

I made a little mound for each crown.

Here's the final spacing.

• 3 4 3 worked out to right about 1 foot apart.

Final step:

• Water the bed
  • This helps eliminate air pockets
    • And will protect them for my next step...

creating wood ash

Just one more step for me.
You don't have to do this.
I just happen to have quite a bit of brush to burn, so thought I would do a few armfuls here...

• When I lived here 20 years ago, I burned wood.
  • I always dumped the wood ash in the garden.
    • This dirt has been bulldozed around a bit,
      so I thought I would create some wood ash.
• Luckily, Fire Chief Brutus ( my 8 year old Boxer puppy) was available to supervise the small burn...

These weeds had grown up around the cellar house.

• They make a very cool popping sound in the fire!

Tha-Tha-Tha-That's all folks!

Asparagus Tips

• They do not compete well with grass or weeds.
  • Keep your bed weeded!
    • Use a mulch, so you don't have to do that as often...
• Do not harvest any spears in the first year.
  • Just a very light harvest the 2nd year. About 2 weeks
    • You can start full harvesting (5-8 weeks) the 3rd year and beyond.
• Harvest when about 6-8" tall for the tenderest shoots.
  • before the spear tip loosens
    • or it will get woody and pithy.
• When done harvesting, let the ferns grow.
  • Prune them to the ground in very early spring.
    • This allows food and nutrients to build a strong root system.
• Asparagus freezes well.
  • Just lay out on cookie sheets and allow to freeze, then bag them up.

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Who I am @WizarDave	The KEY to Life!