Plotting the Perennials: Asparagus
Last but not least in our planning of where to put our perennials fruits and veggies: asparagus! As we have seen with some of the other perennial fruits and herbs, each time something gets moved around on the plan, it forces a whole series of plan changes. Kind of like veggie chess.
Our original plan was to have a long bed of asparagus on the outside edge of the patio quadrant, which would make (in the summer, anyway) a nice ferny screen to block the boring view of the fence. But that spot is now taken up by the strawberries, so we had to find another place:
We decided to move them back towards the lawn, running along the same line as the strawberries, but in the rear quadrant (in the photo they are to the far left). Because we decided on a hybrid variety of asparagus (Jersey Supreme, which we will order from Johnny's Selected Seeds), there will be more spears per plant, and we won't need to plant as many for the same yield. That allows us to leave the end of that bed open for other things (grapes and herbs above, annual veggies below) that will be a part of the horizontal beds. This space allows for about 50 asparagus plants, spaced roughly 14 inches apart on center. That should be plenty of asparagus once it is established!
From a design standpoint, this is probably an improvement. As summer wears on, asparagus bushes out into a tall, ferny plant that wouldn't be as neat and tidy as we might like around the patio area. Moving them to the back will keep the "wild" plants farther back into the background, and could screen the kids' swingset a bit, which will be nice.
Our original plan was to have a long bed of asparagus on the outside edge of the patio quadrant, which would make (in the summer, anyway) a nice ferny screen to block the boring view of the fence. But that spot is now taken up by the strawberries, so we had to find another place:
We decided to move them back towards the lawn, running along the same line as the strawberries, but in the rear quadrant (in the photo they are to the far left). Because we decided on a hybrid variety of asparagus (Jersey Supreme, which we will order from Johnny's Selected Seeds), there will be more spears per plant, and we won't need to plant as many for the same yield. That allows us to leave the end of that bed open for other things (grapes and herbs above, annual veggies below) that will be a part of the horizontal beds. This space allows for about 50 asparagus plants, spaced roughly 14 inches apart on center. That should be plenty of asparagus once it is established!
From a design standpoint, this is probably an improvement. As summer wears on, asparagus bushes out into a tall, ferny plant that wouldn't be as neat and tidy as we might like around the patio area. Moving them to the back will keep the "wild" plants farther back into the background, and could screen the kids' swingset a bit, which will be nice.
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