[simonwatson]

I'm quite pleased with my asparagus bed. Planted 24 crowns last year and 21 survived to the end, but it does look a bit boring.

I was thinking of sowing some pansies on the surface to make it look nicer and to attract the bees to the plot in general. I was thinking that as they're so shallow rooted the asparagus will probably never know and the pansies can just seed themselves once they've got going.

What do people think?

[DD.]

Asparagus will choke out anything you try to grow between the crowns, apart from the most pernicious of weeds!

[ptarmigan]

Hi.

The pansy idea sounds lovely - eventually the asparagus will completely take over - but in the meantime growing some shallow rooted flowers sounds like a lovely idea and should help as a weed suppressant.

I planted mine last year and, like you, thought it looked a bit dull and decided to plant borage on the grounds that seems to be a companion plant for most things, and it looked beautiful round the edges of the bed - and attracted loads of bees.  In fact it was so lovely I'm going to plant borage as a green manure in a spare bed this year.

Anyway - in retrospect violas or pansies might have been better as borage does grow rather large!

[simonwatson]

I've just looked up what a mature Asparagus crown can do once you let the ferns grow. I had no idea! I think I'll give it a go and just let the flowers keep going as long as they can. Pictures to follow if I remember!

[DD.]

That's why I said what I said!

[devonbarmygardener]

Asparagus will choke out anything you try to grow between the crowns, apart from the most pernicious of weeds!

Definitely! My asparagus bed was covered in weed until a couple of hours ago! Now it's weed free and also looking boring as nothing is coming up yet!

[BabbyAnn]

how about growing pot marigold (calendula) in the bed as it is a companion plant to deter asparagus beetles.  It readily self seeds too.

[devonbarmygardener]

how about growing pot marigold (calendula) in the bed as it is a companion plant to deter asparagus beetles.  It readily self seeds too.

Me liking that idea!
You can add the petals to a salad too!

[simonwatson]

how about growing pot marigold (calendula) in the bed as it is a companion plant to deter asparagus beetles.  It readily self seeds too.

The main reason is that I've already got pansy seeds!! Thanks for the suggestion though.

[al78]

Hi.

The pansy idea sounds lovely - eventually the asparagus will completely take over - but in the meantime growing some shallow rooted flowers sounds like a lovely idea and should help as a weed suppressant.

I planted mine last year and, like you, thought it looked a bit dull and decided to plant borage on the grounds that seems to be a companion plant for most things, and it looked beautiful round the edges of the bed - and attracted loads of bees.  In fact it was so lovely I'm going to plant borage as a green manure in a spare bed this year.

Anyway - in retrospect violas or pansies might have been better as borage does grow rather large!

I was thinking of using Borage leaves as a slug deterrant mulch around vulnerable plants, the idea being the leaves are very hairy and if they are unpleasant for me to handle without gloves, they might be unpleasant for slugs to slither over.

[ptarmigan]

Like the idea of using borage as a slug deterrent.  I know I read somewhere, probably on here, about laying down piles of comfrey leaves to attract slugs as they then pile into them to eat and ignore your plants. That's the theory. So while the borage might act as a spikey barrier first - as they rot down they might then attract and keep the slugs. 

[Ema]

You could sink a few pots in the bed if theres currently space and then plant these up with flowers or herbs

[simonwatson]

I thought I'd share the results. As you can see, the alyssum really took off well. A couple of pansies and marigolds are also in there somewhere. I'm pretty happy with the return on investment.