Asparagus, From Crowns to Cropping

Asparagus, From Crowns to Cropping takes you through the whole process. No dig apart from making a hole large enough for the spreading roots of your crowns. The big differences between my easier approach and what you see recommended usually, is : 1 You don’t need to deep dig at the beginning, 2 There is no need for ridges, just grow them in normal beds. This reduces weeding and makes them easy to look after, year after year. I know from experience - asparagus plants are long lived and need little time input after the first year. 00:00 Introductory music 00:04 Which variety to choose - I recommend modern hybrids 00:46 Info on planting asparagus where there are weeds 02:31 Timing of planting 02:53 Growing asparagus from seed 03:12 What is an asparagus crown? 03:55 Showing an asparagus spear 04:38 Showing the bed I will be planting on, already with peas for shoots, and some perennial weeds - I demonstrate how to remove them with a trowel 06:20 Planting the asparagus 09:13 More on weeds especially the difficult couch grass and bindweed 09:52 Planting asparagus (time lapse), and a list of planting steps 10:52 Even more on dealing with weeds! (perennials) 12:59 The benefits of using a (copper) spade for planting 13:37 Explaining how I used soil, cardboard and compost in the bed 14:19 Compost quality 15:49 Timing of asparagus growth each season, and the period of cropping 17:09 8 weeks later - growth of asparagus (and some weeds!) 17:57 Using supports for asparagus ferns 18:41 Showing my 9 year old asparagus bed, planted Dec 2012 19:11 Harvesting asparagus from this bed 21:41 Asparagus beetle. Filmed by Edward Dowding at Homeacres May, June and October 2021. Zone 8 climate, southern UK. Check out this video, filmed in 2018 and showing the 6th year of my first asparagus bed: Module 6 of my Skills for Growing course teaches more on perennials and can be purchased from my website shop: To buy my collections of super informative video garden guides with an encyclopaedic search function, visit Retrieve with whom we partner #/ You can join this channel by paying a monthly fee, to support our work with helping gardeners grow better, and to receive monthly videos made only for members: