The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Growing => Vegetables => Topic started by: suziequeue on June 12, 2015, 10:25:13 am
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This year I am planning my permanent raised bed for asparagus (one third), globe artichokes (middle third) and rhubarb (end third).
I was watching a thing on Countryfile recently and the asparagus beds that the bloke was growing on were really really sandy.
Does anybody have experience of what is the best sand to use for Asparagus? or whether it is really necessary? I can get builders sand delivered by the tonne but I expect that's going to be too claggy. The bed itself will be 150cm by about 3m long so buying bagged horticultural sand is probably going to be prohibitively expensive.
Any suggestions?
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Asparagus like fertile but free draining soil. That is why they are often grown on a ridge but a raised bed will have the same effect. Don't use builders sand for soil conditioning as it contains too much lime. If you bed is well dug with compost/manure added this should be okay unless you have very heavy clay.
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Plant the root stock on top of a raised drill similar to a tattie drill. This will help them from being or getting waterlogged.