Asparagus

[Dahlia]

Asparagus can grow up to 10 inches in just 24 hours if the weather is warm! Bull kelp is also a fast-growing seaweed that can grow up to 2 feet per day!

 

[Alasgun]

I only have two perennials that are kept in raised beds. Asparagus and strawberries, both are a fight to keep going and i believe it has to do with winter kill. Both are going away this year!
It’s hard to beat fresh from your garden Asparagus; im just to lazy to start over!

Out of Seldovia (across from Homer) there’s a kelp bed that ADFG allows residents to harvest from. Being in the area with the right tide once we decided to load up the back of the boat and bring it home for the garden. It was roughly 10 inches deep in the 6x7ft cockpit and when we got home i layered it on some of the beds. Im sure there was some benefit but it was a lot of work and didn’t break down as fast as i would have liked.

Kelp is a big part of my amendment schedule each year but nowadays i buy 25 lb bags of dry/ground kelp which is more user friendly.

Mike

 

[heirloomgal]

I only have two perennials that are kept in raised beds. Asparagus and strawberries, both are a fight to keep going and i believe it has to do with winter kill. Both are going away this year!
It’s hard to beat fresh from your garden Asparagus; im just to lazy to start over!

Out of Seldovia (across from Homer) there’s a kelp bed that ADFG allows residents to harvest from. Being in the area with the right tide once we decided to load up the back of the boat and bring it home for the garden. It was roughly 10 inches deep in the 6x7ft cockpit and when we got home i layered it on some of the beds. Im sure there was some benefit but it was a lot of work and didn’t break down as fast as i would have liked.

Kelp is a big part of my amendment schedule each year but nowadays i buy 25 lb bags of dry/ground kelp which is more user friendly.

Mike

You mean your don't plan to grow them anymore and will use the beds for something else? Strawberries were one of the first things I planted when I started gardening. I don't know what variety they were, but they staged a remarkable and aggressive takeover of the entire garden space in a very short period of time. So much so that I eventually pulled all of them out.

 

[flowerbug]

hmm, winter kill in strawberries? i've not had that happen here even with very harsh winters, but one thing that did happen one year was that i got some transplanted too late and they were frost heaved out of the ground.

do you have full sun there? i see a lot of trees in whatever pictures you post and that is going to make it tougher to grow both asparagus and strawberries.

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

Me too. They are everywhere now!! And not producing many berries. So off with their heads!!

 

[Alasgun]

On the South facing side of the greenhouse they have as much sun as Alaska generates in the summer which is considerably more than anyone else gets; and its 100ft to the trees.
Both are shallow rooted, and being in a raised bed I'm led to believe they are more susceptible to freezing. Or maybe I'm just a crappy gardener, what ever the case they’ll be gone in a couple months. Then with the beds removed i will work up the area and plant it to mint.
Our Raspberries give enough fruit fir the entire year, strawberries were a fresh eating thing. So maybe im both a lazy and a crappy gardener; unwilling to put out the effort for such meager returns?

Mike

 

[ducks4you]

You mean your don't plan to grow them anymore and will use the beds for something else? Strawberries were one of the first things I planted when I started gardening. I don't know what variety they were, but they staged a remarkable and aggressive takeover of the entire garden space in a very short period of time. So much so that I eventually pulled all of them out.

What's your secret? I've failed at growing strawberries!

 

[flowerbug]

...So maybe im both a lazy and a crappy gardener; unwilling to put out the effort for such meager returns?

ok.

strawberries need to be renovated every two to three years, better if you go every other year.

you can check them by seeing how big the crown is. once the crown starts to get longer then production will decline.

yes, they do need some work.

the strawberry patch i turned under a few seasons ago had many strawberry plants with crowns 3 or more inches. they weren't doing very much in terms of production but they were also getting full of weeds and the critters were raiding them and eating more than i was getting picked. so it was time to turn it under. plus it had poison ivy sprouting in there! arg! birdies pooing poison ivy seeds in them.

 

[heirloomgal]

On the South facing side of the greenhouse they have as much sun as Alaska generates in the summer which is considerably more than anyone else gets; and its 100ft to the trees.
Both are shallow rooted, and being in a raised bed I'm led to believe they are more susceptible to freezing. Or maybe I'm just a crappy gardener, what ever the case they’ll be gone in a couple months. Then with the beds removed i will work up the area and plant it to mint.
Our Raspberries give enough fruit fir the entire year, strawberries were a fresh eating thing. So maybe im both a lazy and a crappy gardener; unwilling to put out the effort for such meager returns?

Mike

I don't think it's for lack of skill of experience @Alasgun , lol, I'd guess as you say they don't like the raised beds. Some of the newer homes around here, the ones that have almost no yard but a couple raised wooden boxes, the owners put perennials in those. Very hardy perennials. And many of them don't seem to make it through the winter either. It's surprising really, but it does seem that even the hardiest plants will perish in them through a very cold winter. I've tried overwintering a few things in the odd raised wooden planter box and they've always croaked on me.

 

[heirloomgal]

What's your secret? I've failed at growing strawberries!

I'd guess you may not have had a hardy variety? I'm not sure what might cause them to perish in ground. Did they have other plants crowding them?