Setting out a new asparagus plot in 2019

Some photos of us setting out a raised bed area with the long term plan of getting asparagus from it.  And asparagus is very much a long term plan - as the Royal Horticultural Society advises on its excellent website, to not harvest within the first two years of harvesting.  This plot previously had some rather large rosemary bushes, curry plants and other herbs that were coming toward to the end of their natural lifespans, so these were dug up and burned, while the plot was thoroughly dug over ("double digging method") with plenty of horse manure added, and left for several months.

Digging the trench 

We start by digging a trench (the date started was 1 March 2019) on the right side of the plot, and transport this soil elsewhere, some of which went into the wheelbarrow you see at the bottom right of the picture.  Into this trench we added more well-rotted horse manure, and worked this into the bottom of the trench.  At the far end of the plot there is a strip about a foot wide that already contains some recently planted asparagus of the "Mary Washington" variety, so this post describes how the remaining crowns were planted.

Forming the ridge

I then transport the soil back to the trench and form a ridge as shown.  My tool of preference is to use an ordinary hoe and slowly draw it backwards and upwards to form a nice steep ridge:

Planting the asparagus crowns

I then take a pile of the asparagus crowns I had ordered online and straddle them across the top of the ridge, placing them about 1 foot apart from each other:

I then cover up the crowns with the remainder of the soil, so that the tops of the crowns are just poking through.  I then repeated what was described previously on the left side of the plot.

As these continue to grow I will continue to earth up the crowns with topsoil and organic matter, similar to how we do this with potatoes.

Update 10 March 2019

A week or so later we see the first tiny little crowns starting to appear, just near to my fingernail:

12 April 2020

Spears starting to appear as shown:

 

 24 April 2020

 

29 April 2021

Finally two years later, some asparagus ready for picking and eating...