Planting Asparagus Bare Roots in a Raised Bed
Did you know that I have failed at growing asparagus once before? Honestly, I still get mad at myself because I was so darn close to homegrown asparagus. Technically, I did actually sample one spear and it was delicious! Today I’m going to share about planting asparagus bare roots for Spring, but also tell you the story of my previous asparagus so you don’t make the same mistakes I did.
Planting a Perennial Asparagus Patch
Edible perennials are the biggest contributors to a backyard food garden! Essentially, these are plants that will come back year after year and provide you with insanely delicious, homegrown food. In fact, one of my very favorite edible perennials for the garden is artichokes. If you’ve been following me a while, you know how much we love our artichoke bed that has been producing the most prolific artichokes for several years now (photo below). You can check out my Artichoke Growing FAQ if you’d like to learn more. Honestly, I don’t find asparagus plants to be really attractive in the garden, but they do make up for it in terms of value (asparagus is so expensive in stores). This is just my personal opinion.
Asparagus patches can produce for more than a decade if cared for properly. This is why it’s important to find an area of the garden you can dedicate to them if possible. Otherwise, I think it’s fine to try growing asparagus wherever you want! Just know that the longevity of your patch might suffer. Asparagus need full sun too.
This is just an example of how bountiful perennial vegetables can be in the garden. They are an incredible long term investment for an edible landscape. For example, I’ve still got the same artichokes from several years ago and we harvest incredible amounts every Spring.
Planting Asparagus Bare Root Crowns versus Seeds
My first experience growing asparagus was actually from seed. Honestly, it was extremely rewarding and straightforward. The only thing to factor to consider when growing asparagus from seed is the fact that it can be three years or more until you can harvest your spears—whereas starting an asparagus patch from crowns (bare roots) can give you a head start of 1-2 years. Stores sell asparagus crowns at different sizes, so one size might be a 2 year old plant as opposed to a “jumbo crown” (which is three years I think). Essentially, that just means less wait-time until your first harvest.
This year, I decided that I was going to be planting asparagus bare root crowns because I really do want to get started on some homegrown asparagus ASAP! Additionally, I ended up re-starting some precoce d’argenteuil asparagus from seed as well. I have twenty five spots in the raised bed, so I’m planting eight bare roots and the rest will be my asparagus started from seed.
Here are my Precoce D’Argenteuil asparagus seedlings. They are ready to me transplanted in the garden or up-potted.
My Previous Asparagus Planting Experience
It was three years ago that I sowed my very first asparagus seeds. Yes. I originally grew my asparagus from seed! Honestly, it was a thrill to watch the baby asparagus germinate and push through the soil of my seed cells. Let me tell you, I definitely want to share about growing asparagus from seed again but that’s a story for another day. For now, I’m going to share why my seed-grown asparagus failed.
Admittedly, I had done all the reading and found a dedicated area in my garden to start my perennial asparagus patch. This specific spot was behind my raised bed, in-ground near an apricot tree. At first, everything went well—it was so cool! The bushy fern-like foliage grew and I just let the asparagus do its thing the first year. If you’re familiar with growing asparagus, you’ll know that it’s not the type of crop that you get to enjoy the first year after planting….or the second, and sometimes even the third. It’s often said the third year is when you can start to lightly harvets spears.
Avoid my asparagus growing mistake
Going into my second year with my precious asparagus grown from seed, everything was looking great. Honestly this variety ‘precoce d’argenteuil’ was a vigorous grower, and I saw a nice size spear my second year! Unable to resist temptation, I did harvest one spear from one plant. I do not regret a thing.
The second winter is when I made my biggest mistake! Somehow, I had irrigated the area too heavily during the colder months and never checked on the asparagus patch. Essentially, when Spring rolled around, every single asparagus plant had rotted away. My asparagus were all gone! Literally, the word ‘heartbroken’ doesn’t capture how sad and disappointed I was in myself. So, if you can learn anything from my own experience, it’s that you need to be careful with your irrigation during the winter months when your asparagus plants are dormant.
Here are my new bags of ‘purple passion’ asparagus bare root crowns. Remember, my first round was dug up by critters, so I’m going to learn my lesson and cover these this time!
Soaking & Planting Asparagus Bare Root Crowns
Since you now know the backstory, let’s move on to the asparagus we will be planting now. Purple passion is a very common and vigorous variety of purple asparagus. If you take a look at the package (purchased from Home Depot) you’ll see that it says the crowns are “two years old” meaning that I might be able to enjoy a tiny harvest of asparagus next Spring (2024). If you google “how to plant asparagus crowns” or about planting asparagus, you’ll get a lot of info that seems overwhelming. Also, many growers actually dig trenches to plant their asparagus crowns which is not applicable to the specific area where I am planting my purple asparagus this time.
This year, I have a plan to add three new raised garden beds to my garden so I’ve decided to take one of my old raised garden beds and dedicate it to my purple asparagus. This proposed raised bed gets pretty much full sun and has a Garden Grid Watering System already installed—-this is how I plan to better regulate my watering this time.
I lightly soaked the asparagus crowns in water for about 10 minutes before planting. You can see all these steps in more detail if you watch our asparagus planting YouTube video.
Planting asparagus bare roots in a raised bed is different
Almost all the information I saw online was for growing asparagus in the ground. Essentially, you dig a long trench, arrange the asparagus bare roots in the trench, and cover the crowns with soil gradually. I decided to focus on one common fact: the crowns of the asparagus should end up being 6 inches deep at the end of this whole process. Therefore, I figured out how I would plant my asparagus bare roots in my raised bed so that they eventually ended up with the crowns being 6” inches deep.
For documentation’s sake, I filmed a video of how we planted our asparagus bare roots in the raised bed—you can watch it now on YouTube.
Ideally, step one of this process was to remove soil from the raised bed so that there was about 4-6 inches between the soil level and the top level of our wood bed. I kept all the removed soil in a Rubbermaid tub, so I could easily add it back into the raised bed as needed.
Here are the new asparagus plants about twenty-six days later. I have filled the bed all the way to the top. The rest of this season they will become large, ferny, leafy plants. Stay tuned!
Amending Soil for Asparagus
Step two for planting our asparagus was to amend the soil a bit with some organic composted chicken manure, homemade compost, and some bone meal. The bone meal is supposed to act as a source of phosphorus for the asparagus (as phosphorus is an ideal amendment for root development). I mixed it into the soil and even into some of our fill soil in the Rubbermaid container.
Planting the asparagus
Step three for planting the asparagus bare roots was to take our soaked roots and gently lay them in their designated spots. Thankfully, using a Garden Grid for irrigation means that I knew how far apart to space my asparagus. Each grid is one foot square, so I simply places one asparagus per square. It’s important to note that you can spread the asparagus roots out like an octopus when planting. Instead of digging a hole down for the roots, you can splay them outwards from the crown and place them in their spot on top of the soil.
Step four is to cover your asparagus crowns! In many tutorials I’ve seen, gardeners come back every couple weeks to fill the soil trenches gradually over the crowns. It’s possible you could simply plop all the soil on top and hope for the best, but I did like being able to see the crowns start to push through the soil before burying deeper. I covered each crown with about an inch or so of soil and waited for the asparagus to push through the soil.
Here’s how I laid out the asparagus bare root. The “crown” of the asparagus is the pointy area that actually kind of looks like a crown. It can be a little difficult to get the roots to lay out lik that….it really depends on the quality of your roots. These were okay, but not as crazy big as some I’ve seen!
Cover Your Asparagus Gradually
Finally, as your asparagus starts to appear, continue to cover the spears (gently!) with a couple more inches of soil. Soon you’ll reach the top of the raised bed and voila! You’re done planting your asparagus bare roots! Also, you’ll know that the crowns of your asparagus are planted deep enough and have not rotted away!
Watering Asparagus Plants
After planting our bare roots, I did water the soil well. As with many bare roots, you do not want them to dry out but also don’t want them to rot either. Therefore, I’ve been watering my asparagus patch carefully since we planted it—-I check it daily just to see if the spears are poking through and I check to make sure the soil is moist but not soggy. Ideally, asparagus won’t be this high-maintenance in the long run but, for now, I’m being careful because of my last experience with growing asparagus! An asparagus patch is definitely a long-term investment that will be completely worth it!
As I said before, I’m using a Garden Grid to irrigate this bed, so it will be on a timer during the growing season. Furthermore, I can adjust the amount of water this bed will get in Winter so my asparagus crowns don’t rot.
Covering & Protecting Newly Planted Asparagus
This is so important! I learned this lesson the hard way my friends. You can watch this YouTube short to see what happened, but essentially a critter came through and dug up my first round of asparagus bare roots. I’m not kidding, I came out one morning and found the crowns on top of the soil, completely dug up. In the critter’s defense, I did not properly cover my bed, and it was only looking for grubs. Unfortunately, most of those bare roots did not make it even after I attempted to replant them.
So what’s the lesson here? Cover your newly planted areas! This is similar to how I cover my saffron patch and my anemones/ranunculus in Fall. After planting, I took some rolled wire grid and an extra fence panel and covered my patch as you see below. Thankfully, this has kept the critters out!
Here’s how we are covering our newly planted asparagus so that critters can’t dig it up. I’m happy to report that it seems to be working!
Plant edible perennials & fruit trees for the future
One of our biggest regrets is not planting fruit trees sooner in our backyard garden. Yes, we did manage to plant a tangerine, plum, and apricot—but overall we waited. Looking back, it’s truly edible perennials and fruit trees that really work the hardest and produce the most high-value crops. For example, I should have planted asparagus seven years ago! We would have been enjoying delicious spears from mature plants by now. But, hindsight is 20/20, and I’m glad to be able to share our gardening experiences with you. Grow some asparagus!
104 Comments
Submit a Comment
Meet Randi
1
Your article helped me a lot, is there any more related content? Thanks!
Your article helped me a lot, is there any more related content? Thanks!
Your point of view caught my eye and was very interesting. Thanks. I have a question for you.
Your article helped me a lot, is there any more related content? Thanks! https://www.binance.info/ru-UA/register?ref=OMM3XK51
Hey, you used to write fantastic, but the last several posts have been kinda boring?K I miss your great writings. Past few posts are just a little out of track! come on!
1
Today, while I was at work, my sister stole my apple ipad and tested to see if it can survive a forty foot drop, just so she can be a youtube sensation. My apple ipad is now broken and she has 83 views. I know this is totally off topic but I had to share it with someone!
Heya! I just wanted to ask if you ever have any issues with hackers? My last blog (wordpress) was hacked and I ended up losing a few months of hard work due to no data backup. Do you have any methods to prevent hackers?
I like this weblog very much so much great information.
I have been exploring for a little for any high quality articles or blog posts on this kind of area . Exploring in Yahoo I at last stumbled upon this site. Reading this info So i am happy to convey that I have an incredibly good uncanny feeling I discovered just what I needed. I most certainly will make sure to do not forget this web site and give it a look on a constant basis.
Howdy very cool blog!! Guy .. Beautiful .. Superb .. I will bookmark your web site and take the feeds additionally?KI’m happy to seek out numerous useful information right here within the put up, we need develop extra techniques on this regard, thanks for sharing. . . . . .
Thanks for all your efforts that you have put in this. very interesting info .
Hi there, I found your blog via Google while searching for a related topic, your site came up, it looks great. I have bookmarked it in my google bookmarks.
I like this post, enjoyed this one appreciate it for posting. “Abortion is advocated only by persons who have themselves been born.” by Ronald Reagan.
Utterly indited written content, Really enjoyed reading.
I truly appreciate this post. I have been looking everywhere for this! Thank goodness I found it on Bing. You’ve made my day! Thanks again
I enjoy your work, thankyou for all the informative content.
You are my inspiration , I have few blogs and sometimes run out from to post .
I don’t even know how I ended up here, but I thought this post was great. I don’t know who you are but definitely you are going to a famous blogger if you are not already 😉 Cheers!
Greetings! This is my first visit to your blog! We are a team of volunteers and starting a new initiative in a community in the same niche. Your blog provided us valuable information to work on. You have done a marvellous job!
I couldn’t resist commenting
I do not even know how I ended up here, but I thought this post was great. I do not know who you are but certainly you are going to a famous blogger if you are not already 😉 Cheers!
There may be noticeably a bundle to find out about this. I assume you made certain nice points in features also.
F*ckin’ amazing things here. I’m very glad to see your article. Thanks a lot and i am looking forward to contact you. Will you kindly drop me a mail?
Hello there! This is my first visit to your blog! We are a collection of volunteers and starting a new initiative in a community in the same niche. Your blog provided us useful information to work on. You have done a wonderful job!
Once I originally commented I clicked the -Notify me when new feedback are added- checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get four emails with the same comment. Is there any means you can take away me from that service? Thanks!
so much great info on here, : D.
Wow, incredible weblog format! How lengthy have you ever been blogging for? you make blogging look easy. The overall glance of your website is magnificent, let alone the content material!
I really like foregathering utile info, this post has got me even more info! .
What’s Going down i’m new to this, I stumbled upon this I’ve discovered It positively useful and it has helped me out loads. I hope to give a contribution & aid other users like its helped me. Great job.
Hiya, I am really glad I have found this information. Today bloggers publish only about gossips and web and this is actually irritating. A good web site with exciting content, this is what I need. Thanks for keeping this site, I will be visiting it. Do you do newsletters? Can’t find it.
F*ckin’ tremendous issues here. I’m very satisfied to see your post. Thank you a lot and i am taking a look forward to touch you. Will you please drop me a e-mail?
The Pink Salt Trick is a minimalist but effective morning routine: Just drink a glass of lukewarm water mixed with a pinch of Himalayan pink salt as soon as you wake up.
I likewise think hence, perfectly written post! .
Your point of view caught my eye and was very interesting. Thanks. I have a question for you.
I do agree with all of the ideas you have presented in your post. They’re really convincing and will definitely work. Still, the posts are too short for starters. Could you please extend them a little from next time? Thanks for the post.
With havin so much content and articles do you ever run into any problems of plagorism or copyright violation? My site has a lot of completely unique content I’ve either created myself or outsourced but it looks like a lot of it is popping it up all over the web without my authorization. Do you know any solutions to help stop content from being ripped off? I’d genuinely appreciate it.
The Pink Salt Trick is a minimalist but effective morning routine: Just drink a glass of lukewarm water mixed with a pinch of Himalayan pink salt as soon as you wake up.
You can certainly see your skills within the work you write. The sector hopes for more passionate writers like you who are not afraid to say how they believe. All the time follow your heart. “The only way most people recognize their limits is by trespassing on them.” by Tom Morris.
The Pink Salt Trick is a minimalist but effective morning routine: Just drink a glass of lukewarm water mixed with a pinch of Himalayan pink salt as soon as you wake up.
The Pink Salt Trick is a minimalist but effective morning routine: Just drink a glass of lukewarm water mixed with a pinch of Himalayan pink salt as soon as you wake up.
Merely wanna remark on few general things, The website style and design is perfect, the content is rattling wonderful : D.
I really appreciate this post. I have been looking everywhere for this! Thank goodness I found it on Bing. You have made my day! Thanks again
I got what you intend,bookmarked, very decent site.
Thanks, I have recently been searching for info about this topic for ages and yours is the best I have found out so far. However, what concerning the bottom line? Are you sure in regards to the supply?
You have observed very interesting points! ps nice web site.
Sweet web site, super design and style, really clean and use genial.
I really like your blog.. very nice colors & theme. Did you design this website yourself or did you hire someone to do it for you? Plz answer back as I’m looking to create my own blog and would like to find out where u got this from. thanks a lot
Nice post. I used to be checking continuously this blog and I’m inspired! Very helpful info particularly the closing section 🙂 I maintain such information much. I was seeking this certain info for a very lengthy time. Thank you and best of luck.
It’s laborious to find educated folks on this matter, however you sound like you already know what you’re speaking about! Thanks
Nice post. I was checking constantly this blog and I am impressed! Extremely helpful information particularly the last part 🙂 I care for such information a lot. I was seeking this certain info for a long time. Thank you and good luck.
This blog is definitely rather handy since I’m at the moment creating an internet floral website – although I am only starting out therefore it’s really fairly small, nothing like this site. Can link to a few of the posts here as they are quite. Thanks much. Zoey Olsen
My brother suggested I would possibly like this blog. He used to be entirely right. This submit actually made my day. You cann’t consider simply how much time I had spent for this information! Thank you!
Very interesting topic, regards for posting. “There are several good protections against temptations, but the surest is cowardice.” by Mark Twain.
Its great as your other articles : D, thanks for putting up. “The squeaking wheel doesn’t always get the grease. Sometimes it gets replaced.” by Vic Gold.
I wanted to thank you for this great read!! I definitely enjoying every little bit of it I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you post…
F*ckin’ remarkable issues here. I’m very glad to see your article. Thanks a lot and i am taking a look ahead to touch you. Will you kindly drop me a mail?
Thankyou for all your efforts that you have put in this. very interesting info .
hey there and thank you for your info – I’ve definitely picked up anything new from right here. I did however expertise some technical issues using this site, as I experienced to reload the site lots of times previous to I could get it to load correctly. I had been wondering if your web host is OK? Not that I am complaining, but sluggish loading instances times will often affect your placement in google and could damage your high quality score if advertising and marketing with Adwords. Well I am adding this RSS to my email and could look out for much more of your respective exciting content. Make sure you update this again very soon..
I’ve recently started a site, the information you offer on this web site has helped me greatly. Thank you for all of your time & work. “Quit worrying about your health. It’ll go away.” by Robert Orben.
Hello.This post was extremely motivating, especially since I was investigating for thoughts on this subject last Monday.
I enjoy your writing style really loving this internet site.
There are some fascinating time limits on this article however I don’t know if I see all of them center to heart. There is some validity but I will take hold opinion until I look into it further. Good article , thanks and we would like extra! Added to FeedBurner as properly
Fantastic blog! Do you have any tips and hints for aspiring writers? I’m planning to start my own site soon but I’m a little lost on everything. Would you suggest starting with a free platform like WordPress or go for a paid option? There are so many options out there that I’m completely confused .. Any recommendations? Cheers!
I went over this site and I think you have a lot of fantastic information, saved to my bookmarks (:.
Usually I don’t learn post on blogs, however I would like to say that this write-up very pressured me to check out and do it! Your writing taste has been amazed me. Thanks, quite great post.
so much superb info on here, : D.
An interesting discussion is worth comment. I think that you should write more on this topic, it might not be a taboo subject but generally people are not enough to speak on such topics. To the next. Cheers
Exactly what I was searching for, thankyou for posting.
I will immediately seize your rss as I can’t in finding your e-mail subscription hyperlink or e-newsletter service. Do you’ve any? Kindly let me recognize so that I may just subscribe. Thanks.
You made some nice points there. I looked on the internet for the subject matter and found most people will agree with your site.
Undeniably believe that which you said. Your favorite justification appeared to be on the net the easiest thing to be aware of. I say to you, I definitely get annoyed while people consider worries that they just do not know about. You managed to hit the nail upon the top and defined out the whole thing without having side-effects , people could take a signal. Will probably be back to get more. Thanks
Hi, just required you to know I he added your site to my Google bookmarks due to your layout. But seriously, I believe your internet site has 1 in the freshest theme I??ve came across. It extremely helps make reading your blog significantly easier.
I found your weblog site on google and test a number of of your early posts. Proceed to maintain up the very good operate. I just additional up your RSS feed to my MSN News Reader. Seeking forward to reading more from you later on!…
I just could not depart your site before suggesting that I actually enjoyed the standard info a person provide for your visitors? Is going to be back often to check up on new posts
Excellent goods from you, man. I’ve understand your stuff previous to and you are just extremely wonderful. I actually like what you’ve acquired here, certainly like what you are saying and the way in which you say it. You make it entertaining and you still care for to keep it wise. I cant wait to read much more from you. This is really a great website.
I reckon something genuinely special in this website .
There is obviously a bunch to realize about this. I consider you made various nice points in features also.
Pretty! This was a really wonderful post. Thank you for your provided information.
It’s the news for people who understand that the facts are only the beginning of the story. — Toni @ Satire.info
Satirical pieces force readers to engage their critical thinking just to decode the joke. — Alan @ comedywriter.info
You are my aspiration, I own few web logs and often run out from brand :). “Fiat justitia et pereat mundus.Let justice be done, though the world perish.” by Ferdinand I.
It’s the funhouse mirror that shows us the grotesque reality we’ve learned to ignore. — Toni @ Satire.info
It’s the news for people who have already read the headlines and are ready for the subtext. — Toni @ comedywriter.info
Some genuinely fantastic info , Gladiolus I found this.
The only thing “fair and balanced” is my assessment that everyone is a little bit wrong, especially me. – Jack Handey @ comedywriter.info
I see something really special in this internet site.
You could definitely see your skills in the work you write. The world hopes for more passionate writers like you who are not afraid to say how they believe. Always go after your heart.
Pretty element of content. I simply stumbled upon your site and in accession capital to say that I acquire actually loved account your blog posts. Anyway I will be subscribing on your augment or even I achievement you get entry to persistently rapidly.
Thank you for any other magnificent article. Where else may anyone get that kind of info in such an ideal way of writing? I have a presentation subsequent week, and I am on the search for such information.
Nice blog right here! Additionally your website lots up fast! What host are you the usage of? Can I am getting your associate link on your host? I wish my website loaded up as fast as yours lol
Woah! I’m really enjoying the template/theme of this website. It’s simple, yet effective. A lot of times it’s difficult to get that “perfect balance” between usability and visual appearance. I must say you have done a fantastic job with this. In addition, the blog loads super fast for me on Chrome. Excellent Blog!
Satirical writing is the art of making the impossible seem logical and the logical seem impossible. — Alan @ satire.top
I’d must test with you here. Which isn’t something I usually do! I enjoy studying a submit that may make individuals think. Also, thanks for allowing me to comment!
I think other site proprietors should take this website as an model, very clean and great user genial style and design, as well as the content. You’re an expert in this topic!
Hello, Neat post. There is an issue with your website in web explorer, would check this… IE still is the market leader and a good component to other folks will leave out your magnificent writing due to this problem.
Whats up are using WordPress for your blog platform? I’m new to the blog world but I’m trying to get started and set up my own. Do you need any html coding expertise to make your own blog? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
An interesting dialogue is worth comment. I believe that you need to write more on this topic, it won’t be a taboo subject but generally people are not enough to speak on such topics. To the next. Cheers
Appreciating the commitment you put into your website and detailed information you provide. It’s good to come across a blog every once in a while that isn’t the same old rehashed material. Great read! I’ve saved your site and I’m adding your RSS feeds to my Google account.
It’s actually a cool and helpful piece of info. I am happy that you just shared this useful information with us. Please keep us up to date like this. Thanks for sharing.
I was looking at some of your articles on this site and I think this site is really informative ! Keep on posting.
You really make it seem so easy with your presentation but I find this topic to be actually something which I think I would never understand. It seems too complex and extremely broad for me. I’m looking forward for your next post, I’ll try to get the hang of it!
Generally I do not read post on blogs, however I wish to say that this write-up very pressured me to check out and do so! Your writing taste has been amazed me. Thank you, quite nice post.