Allotments 4 All

Someone has kindly given me a bulk load of topsoil, albeit fairly London "clay-ey".  I was thinking of using some of it to top dress my asparagus bed and wondered if now was a good time to do it and also if it was wise to add a layer of soil to this bed?  ( I normally try and cover it with a think layer of manure).

Any advice welcome!

not a good idea, mate, aspasragus is a seashore plant, prefers sand to clay!! use leafmould or good homemade compost, or well rotted manure. ;)

I don't see why you shouldn't use some, but don't blanket it with clay. Mix it well with compost or manure though. Don't add it for the sake of adding it; only do so if there's a specific reason for raising the bed.

Thanks!

Clay loam is a rich soil if plenty of organic matter has been worked into it, but I'd have thought - like tonybloke - that it's not sensible to add it to asparagus beds.  A more free draining soil is what you're after.

You haven't said why you want to raise the bed. If you're doing it because of waterlogging, then even straight clay might be an impovement!

gonna put the cat umungst the pigeons with this post
i live in west london wich is clay
infact the clay in west london is so good it has been used for bricks blahh blahh etc
my point is ive lived at my house since 1984 and every year aparagus pops up in my front garden every year and i dont enven do anything to get it to pop up . ive also noticed that there is a few asparagus  popping up on my allotment on unsed plots again with no care.

Once it's established, I think it's probably as tough as anything. The only difficulty is really the crap plants sold by some suppliers!

Any particular suppliers in mind Robert? Have just put in an order and hoping its not from a bad one!

I am planning to use T&M to get a '4-pack' selection of 20 asparagus plants (5 of each type).  Has anyone else used T&M?

I live in north london and am planning to plant in a raised bed filled with a combination of clay-y soil (not too bad), rotten horse manure and the council's heat-treated compost that they deliver to our site.  I am hoping this should be good enough.  I plan to manure/compost over the years to improve the soil further over time.

Psi

I got mine from Kings Seeds, excellent plants. I find T&M very expensive, their plants can be poor, plus I'd rather buy from an independent nursery than a multinational!

Kings are affiliated to the National Society of Allotment Gardeners and supply most allotment sites who have shops.

http://simonsallotment.blogspot.com/search/label/Asparagus

I've just put 10 crowns in from Kings, very health looking plants they were too  ;D

Ninnyscrops

i have had asparagus from a few suppliers t&m being the worst crowns of the lot, i can highly recommend blackmoor  http://www.blackmoor.co.uk/index.php?cPath=205&osCsid=ihjdq9288ml596uhn03ecljke3 they were the biggest roots and produced the strongest plants at a very good price as well

Quote from: gwynleg on March 11, 2009, 09:32:29
Any particular suppliers in mind Robert? Have just put in an order and hoping its not from a bad one!

Wilko's and a local garden centre. Then Asparagus in Kent sold me some brilliant crowns last year which established with no problems at all. I'm looking forward to seeing them again!