[shokkyy]

How much soil depth does it need? Would I get away with about 8" depth or is that too shallow?

If it's not enough, any other suggestions for something to stick in a bed I've got with that soil depth? I have rhubarb in it at the moment, which is not at all happy. Until I stuck a fork in it the other week I didn't realise how shallow it was. I thought the bed was on top of soil, but looks like there's hard core underneath. It's a completely self-contained bed well away from my other veggies, not possible to protect from rabbits or dogs so it would have to be pretty tough and not at all appetising or it'll get eaten. Shame to waste the bed because it's about 10 foot by 4 foot with reasonable soil and it seems well drained.

[Trillium]

8" is definitely not enough for asparagus. But lettuce, baby carrots and small onions won't mind that depth. And strawberries could cope as well provided fertilitity on the top part is kept up.

Asparagus needs close to 2 ft depth to do well, so perhaps building up a raised bed another foot and a half above this area? Rhubarb might be happy in a deep pot.

[pixie1nigel]

 No chance with asparagus, 2' depth required. Even a raspberry bed,would require another 9" or so with loads of organic matter to hold on to water and nutrients, even though they love to be free draining. + some support for taller summer varietys. Tolerant of shade but love full sun though, and indestructable! Would a raised bed be possible?

[shokkyy]

Thanks for those suggestions. It already is a raised bed and it wouldn't be straightforward to try to make it deeper because it's edged with concrete edging strips. And I'm afraid the rabbits would munch anything like lettuce or baby carrots there.  They wouldn't touch onions - and they wouldn't need to be small, I grew monster onions last year in a bed that's 6" of topsoil sitting on concrete

But onions are quite vulnerable when they're small, whether sets or seedlings, and there's not really any easy way to protect that bed because of where it's located. It has to be something that's tough enough to survive without protection and doesn't make a tasty snack for rabbits. I did use to grow strawberries in that bed, but gave up on them because I couldn't get a sturdy enough barrier around it to stop the squirrels munching them all. Maybe I need to put my thinking cap on and see if I can come up with some kind of cage to protect the bed, but I don't know how effective it could ever be because the ground around the bed is so uneven.

[Babstreefern]

Can you move asparagus though

[gavinjconway]

No problem - just dig and move... they die back now so it is the right time.  Prepare your bed with good compost.

see this link by John the site owner..

http://www.allotment-garden.org/vegetable/aparagus/index.php 

[Babstreefern]

Thanks Gav, that great.  I'll be moving them in the coming weeks:)