Schlatter Family Site

Asparagus Bed

Here are photos of our asparagus bed that we put in on 19 March 2009.

The bed is a raised bed made of 2X12 lumber, 3 feet wide, 12 feet long.   The soil is a half-and-half mixture of compost (horse manure and straw) and topsoil.

Asparagus is a long-term perennial crop -- it's permanent and comes back every year.  As asparagus shoots emerge from the soil, let them grow until they are about six inches long then harvest the shoots and eat them.  Shoots continue to come up all summer.

However -- you do have to be patient.  Put asparagus in the ground in Year One (for us, that's this year, 2009) and let it grow.  Cut it back at the end of the growing season.  The asparagus will grow back in Year Two (2010) and we may be able to harvest a few spears.  Cut back at the end of Year Two growing season.  In Year Three, we should start harvesting a full crop of asparagus all summer long and each year afterward.

Asparagus is sold in bunches of crowns.  Each crown is a small piece of asparagus plant with several long roots growing from the plant crown.  Crowns are sold in most garden centers and nurseries.  Asparagus crowns aren't much to look at -- they look like dead weeds.

To plant your asparagus crowns:

•  Soak the crowns in water for about 30 minutes before planting.
•  Dig a trench -- 12 inches wide, 8 inches deep.
•  The crowns are planted 12 inches apart.
•  Start at one end of the trench and build small mounds of dirt, using 2-3 handfuls of dirt to make a mound.  Make the mounds 12 inches apart.
•  Put one asparagus crown on top of each mound and drape the roots evenly over the mound.
•  Cover the trench and crowns with soil so the crowns are 4-8 inches under the surface of the soil.

Here are some photos.

This photo shows the 3 X 12 foot asparagus bed; 12-inch wide trench, 8 inches deep dug down the center of the bed.  Note the mounds of dirt in the center of the trench, 12 inches apart -- this is where the asparagus crowns will be set.

Another view of the trench with the mounds, ready to set the asparagus crowns on the dirt mounds.

In the center of this photo you see an asparagus crown placed on top of a dirt mound, roots spread, ready to be covered with soil to a depth of 8 inches.