Kitchen Garden Forum

Did your Asparagus suffer last winter? Mine did, between the hard winter and the cats scratching a lot of crowns lost. So I decided to start again,
the new crowns arrived today from T&M, the crowns looked really good, much better than the last lot I bought locally. They are now in their designated spot in the garden, a place where they won't shade other plants, six inches deep and 1.5 ft apart in a compost rich bed, with some cat protection, and mulched over with a nice thick layer of straw - just in case we get another hard winter like last year !

Lost 6 out of 12 plants...

Not to mention lt more of other plants and shrubs...

Hope yours survive till 2011, NB , and you get a good crop in 2012... unless of course like me you cheat and eat some of the first year's growth....

Thank you Masdafish, I hope so too, I must remember to fertilise before the new growth next year, to help build up the new crowns, but the ground is in pretty good heart with all the compost I made and added, and I am beginning to realise the benefits of gardening vertically like nature does as everywhere is getting a good autumn mulch of leaves from the grape, kiwi and fruit trees dotted about the garden. Sorry to hear you lost so many plants, you are further north, it must have been worse there.

I didn't lose any, but they were very late producing spears and I thought some weren't going to come through, but they did eventually. I'm definitely going to mulch them this year - just in case.

Hi Plumpudding, it amazes me how quickly the worms drag the mulch into the soil and digest it ! I have to watch the chickens or the mulch gets scratched up to get at the worms on the surface.