Texas Vegetable Garden

Today I planted most of Raised Bed #4.

I have dedicated half of this bed to Sweet corn. Whilst I had hoped I would have room for 4 rows, I only managed to squeeze in 3 rows of 10. I spaced the individual seeds roughty four to six inches apart, with ten inches between each row. My reading suggests that 3 rows is a rather marginal number for successful pollination of the corn kernels. I will therefore have to keep a close eye of that when the time comes, I may need to provide some kind of manual assistance with the fertilization.

The other half of Bed #4 now contains my Shallots (a set of 10 ’sets’, to make a poor pun). There are lined up in one row against the edge of the bed, so I still have a large empty space behind them I can utilize in future (spinach perhaps?)

I am starting to run out of planting space, but thankfully I’m seeing signs some of my earlier plantings are finally germinating.

(Details)

Now that I have completed extending Bed #3, I have space for my remaining asparagus crowns.

My planting today consisted of two rows of 5 of Jersey Supreme Hybrid Asparagus - Giant Grade, and behind them one row of 5 of my remaining Purple Passion Asparagus crowns.

Once I had them planted I gave the entire asparagus bed a dosage of Gurney’s Asparagus Food(17-16-28). This involved measuring a couple of ounces of green powder out into my watering can, filling it up, and then sprinkling it generously over the bed.
I have to say it feels much more effective using the liquid soluble fertilizer, hopefully it really does help!

I have spent a lot of time the last few days working on a new raised bed (Bed #3) for my Asparagus. 

 I originally planned to plant these along the fence line, but given the long life span of Asparagus (10 years or even more) I decided against it.  With any luck the Asparagus will last a lot longer than my fence will! The new bed does not hug the fence, so now my Asparagus should survive the next fence replacement.  Who says I don’t plan long term?:)

I didn’t plan out everything to perfection however…my new Bed did not have enough room for all my Asparagus crowns, I found space for 15 of them (I have 30 ready to go in the ground).
Nearest the house I planted two rows of 5 of Mary Washington Improved Asparagus - Giant Grade, behind these I squeezed in one more row of 5, this time of Purple Passion Asparagus - 2 year.

At the same time I fertilized the new bed with ‘‘Vigoro Timed-Release All Purpose Plant Food 19-6-12′, hopefully this will get the Asparagus off to a good start. I do have some special ‘Asparagus Food’ fertilizer on it’s way, details in an upcoming post.
While I wait for it to arrive, I will work on extending Bed #3 to hold the rest of my Asparagus!