i recently purchased a great old farmhouse (built in 1774) with 11 acres. one of the many fabulous things i've discovered, is a huge asparagus bed that seems to be in pretty good shape. BUT... it is also filled with weeds. my question is simple:

is there something i can plant under the asparagus and keep the weeds out? something that will live peacefully, and not hurt the asparagus?

i was thinking of something like clover???!?

-- johnny d frierson (j.frierson@frimee.com), July 02, 2001

Answers

My Aunt used to throw rock salt around her asparagus, just enough to kill the grass. The asparagus seemed to thrive on it. I don't know how much to tell you to use, however. Maybe you could experiment on one plant.

-- Cora-Vee Caswell (coravee@locl.net), July 02, 2001.

First you make ice cream in the crank churn ice cream freezer then pour the salt water in the bed.

If you wish to have fresh asparagus this October then mow down the bed at the end of July and water.

Use a hoe on the bed. It takes a lot of work to revive a bed in late summer.

-- JR (jr3star@earthlink.net), July 02, 2001.

Make sure your bed is worth renovating before going to all the trouble of getting the weeds out. If the plants are more than 30 years old, their yields aren't very good. Our 50 year old bed didn't survive all my work to get the weeds out. A commercial grower near me recommends getting new plants and starting again if the asparagus is 20 years old.

Deborah

-- Deborah Lawton (jlawton@kaltelnet.net), July 04, 2001.

i have strawberries growing under mine. doesnt seem to be a problem.

-- paul miller (millerclan@alltel.net), July 06, 2001.