by pa_friendly_guy » Thu Jan 12, 2012 2:27 pm
I plan on adding an asparigus bed this year. I have never tried growing it befor and thought it might be fun. It does take a couple of years, but I think the fresh asparigus will be worth the wait. They are a very heavy feeder I have been told, so I really added alot of organic matter to the bed I prepaired. I picked an area of the garden that I had already double dug 7 or 8 years ago. It was great to see how the leaves and sub soil had changed since I had put them in layers that long ago. I put a small PU load of well rotted horse poo on the bottom. My friend only has one horse, and he Loves that horse. So it was mostly saw dust with some urin and poo mixed in with it. It was well aged though. Then I got a small PU load of chicken poo. When I double dig an area I have one pile of top soil and a separate pile of sub soil and rocks. This time everything went onto the same pile because it had all been sifted and improved. I layered the soil and chicken poo in small lifts and added some more leaves just for good measure. I did also add a bit of lime here and there as I went up. Because of the extra volume of stuff I ended up with a slightly raised bed about 4' wide and 16' long. My neighbor feels that it should grow hair on a rock, lol, it is a pretty fertile area now. I plan on ordering an all male type of asperigus so that I do not have as much problem with spreading from the berrys. The least you can buy is 25 plants. That might be a bit much for me, I may have to give a few plants away to friends. I planted garlic right along the new bed figuring that once the new bed is planted Nothing more will be done with it and the garlic would not hurt. It was a way to save space, the garlic is right up against the bed. Everything else I grow will be about the same as other years, 6 kinds of tomatos [ I only plant 12 plants, there are only 2 of us now ] white and red potatos, zuccini and yellow squash, carrots, green and yellow beans, early and mid season cabbage [ I never get any of the late season type the bugs get it all ], 3 or 4 types of leaf lettus. red yellow and white onions, red yellow orange green and purple bell peppers, 2 kinds of hotter peppers, garlic. That is about all I have room for in my 35' X 40' fenced in area. In prior years I did plant three 3' X 25' strips out side the fence, things that deer would not hurt as much like zuccini, but we do not need that much any more and one of those beds was convered to black berrys a couple of years ago. I have grown pumpkins outside the fence for the grand kids, they not only got to watch them grow all summer, they got to pick their own jackolantern for Halloween. Not sure if I will do that again or not. I did through a bunch of winter square onto the mulch pile , I may see what grows from that next spring.
Never doubt that a small group of dedicated people can change the world, indeed it is the only thing that ever has.