A few weekends ago at the Tread Lightly festival, I picked up some asparagus plants from Frog Hollow Nursery and today my Sunday afternoon project is to plant them. I have two smallish beds at the front of my veggie patch that are reserved for perennials. The other bed has blueberries, so this one is perfect for my new asparagus patch. The soil is well drained and slightly acid so if I can get some compost and manure into it, it should be perfect for growing this tasty member of the Liliaceae family.
I consult my favourite veggie gardening book "Self -Sustainable Gardener" by John Seymour and it advises the best thing to do, to prepare the bed properly, is to single dig.
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| Some offerings from the ponies. |
I haven't done this before so here goes. Seeing as this is a semi permanent crop it makes sense to put the hard effort into the soil now as I won't be able to dig again once planted. I pick up half a barrow load of horse manure from the paddock and get two bags of blended and composted manure to add to it (sorry Marcus my compost is not ready yet!) I can fit 4 trenches in my space, with 3 plants in each row for a total of 12 plants.
I have chosen two varieties that were recommended to me by the nice lady from Frog Hollow that are their favourites, apparently delicious and noteworthy. They are "Mary Washington" and "Connovers Colossal".
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| Three rows done - one to go. |
I dig a trench to a spades depth and put the top soil to the side of the trench. I take a small selection of soil from about 12cm depth to do a soil test and set it aside to dry out as the test recommends. I will come back to this later. Next I fill the bottom of the trench with some horse manure. On top of this I add some composted manure and mix some of the soil into this. Finally I add a scoop of SEAMUNGUS pelleted seaweed fertiliser, as I read that Asparagus do well with a seaweed mulch so figure they should like this as a feeder as well and winter is the time for feeding them. Finally I replace all the top soil and hoe it into a nice raised row ready for planting.
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| Removing all the last of the weed runners. |
Last summer I grew Zucchini in this bed and when they finished I made sure to weed the bed thoroughly and mulch it. There is only the odd weed left and as I dig, I make sure to remove any runners I come across. John Seymour informs me that getting rid of any creeping weeds will be impossible once the asparagus roots are established and spread throughout the soil. Clearing the bed first as thoroughly as possible and mulching heavily will be my best weed suppressant.
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| A strong root system. |
After I repeat this process three more times I have four nice raised rows to plant into and I make quick work of easing the plants into their new permanent positions, 30-40cm apart. Now is a good time to go back to my dried soil and complete the soil test. If I need to adjust the soil (with lime for example) it will need to be applied next and watered in.
I read in the "Self Sufficient Gardener" that ideal conditions for asparagus are as follows:
"The plant flourishes in a light well-drained loam and it will grow well in sandy land that has been well mucked and composted and not allowed to dry out. The soil should have a pH of 6.5, which may mean you have to add lime."
When I do the colour i-metric test I'm really happy to see that it shows up as a pH of 6.5 (slightly acid) on the colour chart. Well - to my eye anyway- as there are quite a few orange shades on the chart, but I think that one definitely matches best! So all being interpreted correctly this means I shouldn't have to add lime or anything else to adjust the pH. Although it would have been great to be able to do a soil meter test as well to compare but I haven't splashed out for one of these yet.
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| 6.5 pH is ideal for asparagus. |
Now it's time to lay the drippers back down, give the plants a soak and follow John Seymour's second piece of advice:
"Asparagus benefits enormously from heavy mulching. I like to mulch with seaweed, but otherwise mulch with any organic material which is non acid. Don't hoe to deeply otherwise you'll damage the asparagus roots. Your mulch is the best weed suppressor."
I have a big bag of sugar cane mulch left over from summer (no weed seeds - bonus) so lay this on thickly and use some old straw in the trenches between the rows. I will top this up as it breaks down to keep it nice and thick.
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| The finished job. |
I'm pleased with my efforts for today and all that's left now is a two year wait till we can feast!
Hi Marcus,
ReplyDeleteAfter our No Dig Gardening prac today - i can tell you won't like my "dated" soil preparing efforts detailed in this post! But - I found it really interesting to hear why it's good not to touch the soil profile too much and it made sense to me to put your raw materials in the compost and add this composted "balanced" mix to the top of the soil and allow the worms and beneficial organisms to do the work to carry it down.
It will be no dig gardening techniques for me from now on! (if only i'd waited till next weekend to plant the asparagus then I wouldn't have had to do all that digging!) Thanks :)
The technique of single digging is still a valid technique in some cases, the only issue I have is the addition of organic matter (particularly fresh manure) in layers at depth. This can lead to issues particularly in heavy soils, in winter with wet conditions. Asparagus is a very hardy plant and is often found as a weed in Tas on sand dunes along the foreshore of some areas near Hobart. Some old timers swear that they get great results by applying salt to plantings of asparagus, although I personally would not recommend it.
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