This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
Neglected asparagus bed.....
busybee2015
Posts: 9
in Fruit & veg
Hi,
I am a novice gardener but learning fast. We have an asparagus bed which produces the most amazing fat spears, the kids fight over them. We have been in the garden 3 yrs. I would love to keep it but it is covered in couch grass, nettles and brambles. I have tried to hand weed it every year in the spring but by the summer it is 5ft deep in weeds again. This year I have carefully weeded shallowly but cannot get all the weed roots out. My plan is to cover in a thick layer of "mulch" (bags of eco mulch from the garden centre) and try and keep on top of it this year.
www says cannot transplant asparagus and to give up and start again.
Any suggestions?
0
Posts
Hand weed as best you can.
.Paint any weeds carefully with a glyphosate gel touchweeder(roundup)
Mulch well
If you start a new bed, you must be sure to eradicate any perennial weeds before you replant.
If the couch grass is visible now, you can spray it with glyphosate on a dry day as the asparagus won't be shooting for many weeks yet. Keep doing that once a week until the spears start to show and that should deal with the couch grass which is the worst of the weeds you mention because of its roots which will be completely intermingled with the asparagus roots. After the asparagus starts growing, treat the other weeds in the way fidget says.
If you're going to keep the bed for asparagus you could try the traditional method of using salt to help keep down the weeds - asparagus is a maritime plant and is quite happy in saline conditions, but it will weaken or even kill most weeds.
However if there's a chance that you may want to grow something else in that patch don't use salt.
If you want to try using salt, use the type sold for pickling, not iodised table salt.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Interesting Dove, I never knew that!
Thanks you for the advise guys. Will try sprinkling on salt before mulch and then get some round up for gentle application to the sprouting weeds.
Just don't overdo the salt or it might leach onto surrounding soil and stop other plants from growing
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.