Putting in an Asparagus Bed

We filled in the last portion of the in-ground beds, closest to the new compost bin, to fill out our asparagus bed, and in this pic we've laid out the asparagus seeds and crowns where they will be planted.  We had 4 first-year indoor-starts already planted, added two packets of seeds on the sides and in between we put in 14 second-year crowns.  Our original plan was to plant all crowns, but by the time we decided to create an asparagus bed, all the crowns were sold, so we planted starts and bought some seeds. But recently I found these crowns in the back of a garden store display that had been overlooked, and we decided to plant them as well.  So our bed will have a mix of first and second-year plants. (Putting these pictures up on the blog so we can remember where each was planted for later comparison.)


Here's the last row of asparagus crowns going in, using a modified trench method. Modified because I placed the compost on the bottom before building up the beds earlier today, so I didn't have to dig a new deep trench to set the compost. So when planting them I only had to dig deep enough to get the crowns 2 inches below the surface. The seeds were no different than planting any other seed, and only needed to be 1/2 inch deep, but the crowns required a deeper planting.


I've never planted asparagus crowns before, and they are a different experience than seeds or bulbs. I didn't want any of the seed/crowns to go to waste, so I planted them all a little closer than recommended, but we can thin them later as needed.

Asparagus is a perennial, and will produce asparagus spears for 30 years if cared for correctly. Unfortunately, they take a few years before you can harvest the first spear.  The crowns are already in their second year as sold, so we could technically start harvesting them next year, but it's likely that we'll wait til the following year to harvest any - just to give the plants time to establish themselves.

That's the last planting of the year. We started earlier than normal this year, and finished later than normal, but we planted far more than we've ever planted before. Will be interesting to see how well it all does.