Asparagus- A bed for the next 25 years!
Posted by: TammyOkay, I love asparagus! It wasn’t always that way but now I’m hooked on those tender spring jewels from the ground!
I’ve been wanting to create an asparagus bed for two years now, but the physical size of the bed kept forcing me to put it off. Asparagus send out a tap root that can go as deep as 6 feet down! If you plant heirloom varieties of asparagus, you have to plant them at least 12″ to 14″ deep and it’s recommended that the bed be at least 4 feet to 5 feet deep. You can plant hybrid varieties less deep, but you still need the deep bed.
In case you’ve missed some of my past pictures, you might have forgotten that we live on some pretty rocky and clay type soil. The only thing I grow easily seems to be boulders.
So, this was our rock pile with the bed only 2 feet down. This, by far, has been the most physically demanding bed that I’ve built. I continued to be motivated by the fact that if I did this bed properly, it would last for the next 25 years, which is how long you can expect a properly maintained bed to produce.
So, I kept digging. And digging. And. Digging…
At about 4 feet, I had to stop. I had hit a horrible layer that was beyond hope. I settled for getting my extra foot of bed depth by building a foot high retaining wall around the majority of the hole. The hill is sloped upward, so I didn’t have to build up the rear of the bed.
Then began the process of building a high quality soil for the asparagus. You know you’re a country girl when your dad brings you a truck load of well-rotted horse manure for your birthday and you thank him profusely and grin ear to ear! LOL! I began layering manure, bagged garden soil (we had a large supply from a landscaping company that went out of business and cleared their palettes of soil for very, very cheap), and then shoveling in the excavated clay-type dirt. I would then climb into the hole, turn over the three layers and begin the process again.
Eight layers and five hours of back-breaking labor later…
I smelled nicely of manure, sweat and lemon-eucalyptus mosquito repellent. 
AND I had a very nice, 5 foot deep asparagus bed! WOO HOO!!!!!
Let me tell you about the variety of asparagus I chose. I had done some research and read this great book:
If you’re a cold weather area gardener, especially a New England gardener, this book is for you! The author lives in VT and it’s great to read techniques and recommendations that are so easily applicable to my area.
Anyways, he talked about an all-male hybrid developed out of Rutgers called Jersey Knights. You only harvest the male stalks of asparagus, letting the smaller female stalks develop. Well, knowing that I had a limited planting space and couldn’t necessarily afford to lose too many stalks to females, I opted for the hybrid variety. I bought one-year old roots. I won’t be able to harvest for two more years but they were the only roots available to me in my area with special ordering.
I got my roots in before the afternoon thunderstorm moved in. I’m now awaiting for the first signs of green to come up. I planted them about in a trench about 6″ deep (remember, you don’t have to plant the hybrid varieties as deep). As the green comes up, you gently fill in the trench allowing the greens to continue to grow until you covered it the entire 6″
I can definitely say that the harder you work on something, the more satisfying it is when the job is completed. Knowing that this bed will be productive for years and years to come is also satisfying. It IS hard to be patient. I have to wait two more years before I can enjoy a harvest of tender, succulent asparagus but the wait will be worth it!
May 15th, 2010 at 10:47 am
Just want to say what a great blog you got here!
I’ve been around for quite a lot of time, but finally decided to show my appreciation of your work!
Thumbs up, and keep it going!
Cheers
Christian, iwspo.net
May 17th, 2010 at 8:51 am
I love asparagus and you’re right, it’s pretty easy to grow. Now if I could just get dh to eat it - I’d plant tons!
May 17th, 2010 at 5:43 pm
Thanks for the feedback!
I always wonder if I’m talking to myself as I blog. It’s good to know that someone is reading!