Finally, the long awaited asparagus bed! We started this whole venture over six months ago with the raised bed on the south side of the garage. DH cut 2x12 osage lumber on his sawmill for the sides and we spent a day installing this 4' x 32' raised bed using osage stakes pounded into the ground for support. This osage wood frame will never have to be replaced for as long as we live (and probably not for many years thereafter)! Osage Orange (Maclura pomifera)aka 'Hedge Apple' is well known for its durability. Farmers have used it to plant hedge rows and the limbs or 4x4's have been used for fence posts that never need to be treated. This is one of the hardest North American woods and the fence posts made with it will last for a hundred years! Here's a good article: The Versatile Osage-Orange American Forests, Autumn, 2000, by Jeff Ball
So the asparagus bed is here to stay. A very good investment of our time and energy, methinks. Once the raised bed was in, our attention was next turned to amending the heavy soil. In the fall we collected the end of year grass trimmings, and all of the leaves from the trees were mulched and dumped into the bed to break down over the winter. Also the litter from the chicken coop which included Sphagnum peat moss and chicken doody went in. And all winter when the gooses' pool was cleaned the goose doody sediment went in there, too. More turning this spring and at that time I dug down to a depth of about 1 1/2 shovels. There is a lot of clay in the area, so I am still concerned about the drainage needs of the asparagus. We will see how it likes the spot now with all of the compost mixed in.
Yesterday I dug my trench down the middle of this four foot wide bed and put in another layer of compost. I planted 31 two year crowns ordered from Gurneys. I chose Jersey Giant which is on the west end, Purple Passion in the middle and Jersey Supreme on the east end of the bed. The Jersey Supreme is a little close. The recommendation is spacing at 18" to 24". My only option would have been to leave out some of the crowns, but I went ahead and planted all of them. If they are really gigantic and not happy this crowded, I can dig out every other one later and move them elsewhere or give them away.
I chose these particular hybrids because they are all male plants (not the Purple Passion) and will produce better than the female plants. They are also disease resistant. The Purple Passion is said to not produce as well as the Jersey Giant or Jersey Supreme, but I thought it sounded interesting with its purple spears that turn green when you cook them! The Jersey Supreme has the added benefit of an earlier yield. Now everything is in place. The crowns are covered and I will gradually fill in the trench as the asparagus begins to grow.
As for the harvest...we wait and wait some more...but only a couple more years.
