Beginner Gardening: 2nd Year Asparagus, 1 by Curious_Arkie

Curious_Arkie wrote:
HELP!!!!!!!!!!!

For the last few years my asparagus bed got over-run with bermuda grass!!

Any suggestions on how to get rid of the grass whilst leaving the asparagus alone??

This picture was taken when I'd realized that the asparagus was starting to grow and I left some of the old stalks still there so as to be able to get a visual of the bed--you can see the pile of old asp. ferns from last year on the right.
Today I pulled all of the old stalks so as to see just the new ones as they come up.
Here's a YouTube video of it just before I pulled up all of the old stalks:
http://youtu.be/yzSymk3Tt5g

I get TONS of asparagus every year insomuch that I have to start giving tons of it away!!
I've found that the more you neglect it--the better it does!!

I'd brought these from our old farm, and I had to have a BACKHOE dig them up as their roots were about 8 feet long and were like an old dry, cotton string mop--impossible to sink a spade into!!

I'd grown these from seed, and also foraged a lot from finding wild ones (growing wild in ditches, etc.) through the years (about 2--30 foot rows!) and I'd put a lot of work into them, but I couldn't take them all with me. My bed is about 10 years old and some of them didn't make the transplant because I moved to a ROCK county and needed to pick axe out this bed before I could put any asp. in it.The ones that made it are now established and it seems to me now that the more you just leave them alone, the better they do!
1.) let the babies grow out (smaller than a pencil.)
2.) if you find that you'd missed picking one--let it grow and fern out.....it will love you for it!
3.) when they start petering out, just let them grow out....I can't help but think that it's their little reward for all they've given, and I feel it nourishes the plant rhizomes....at least it's a natural thing to them.
4.) drizzle with olive oil, then barbeque them, sprinkling with a little garlic salt...
YeoWZa!!


This message was edited Apr 12, 2011 8:27 PM

This message was edited Apr 12, 2011 8:27 PM