Hi hisgirltoo - I never "uncover" my asparagus beds. They come up right through the straw and leaving the straw in place helps keep down the weeds, retain moisture, and feeds the beds as it decomposes. There was a nother recent discussion on this (further down the page) and I think most agreed that you don't need to uncover it. Strawberries here in my zone get cleaned up, uncovered, and fed in late March (depending on the weather) so I would guess that mid to late April would work for you. Depends on what your last freeze date is. ;) Dave

Um, not really sure what you mean by 'stored for the winter.' If you had a professional style cooler with the ability to keep things at about 31-33 degrees with 90% humidity and proper air circulation, like a commercial nursery would, you could do so. But, I'm sure that's not an option for a home gardener. Strawberries, certainly, transplant well, and could be moved sometime between mid-September and mid-October in most regions of the country, dug with fairly large root balls, replanted, kept moist, and should do OK. Aspargus can be dug and moved, but doesn't tend to do as well, especially if the roots are older. Time to do this would be AFTER they have gone completely dormant and the tops have died off -- sometime probably in early November in your "average" zone 5 or 6 climate. In my experience, though, asparagus doesn't transplant all that well, often better just to start fresh. When I tried it, though, the roots had been in the same place for about 35-40 years, and about 2/3rds of them didn't make it. Perhaps if they weren't quite so old, would work out better. However, I am wondering why you can't just work around the plants? -- you can till fairly close to them, within about six inches on either side of the rows, without any trouble. Moving the plants would set them back tremendously, especially the asparagus, which would take 2 to 3 years to recover. Generally, asparagus is grown as a long-term perennial crop, and the beds can be left alone for many years. IF you are having a problem with persistant weeds, like quackgrass, etc., remember that you can safely spray herbicides right over the top of the aspargus roots in late fall or very early spring, as long as there is no top growth present. This is what commercial growers do, spraying Roundup or similar right over the beds in early spring.

Good suggestion. I was thinking about trying some of the purple asparagus. The purple pole beans we tried last year were very popular. The kids loved that they turned green when you cook them and they tasted really good. Has anyone tried purple asparagus?

Strawberry barrels if done properly make a lot of sense if space is limited. I have been hanging on to an old variety of strawberry 'British Sovereign' introduced in 1923. The original plants were given to me in the 70's and I've have had them tucked in here and there just to keep them going. These don't seem to be available anymore so I don't want to lose them. Now to my question, has anyone grown strawberries in hanging baskets, I'm running out of places to grow these in the garden but have space for hanging baskets. I have a half barrel but it's full of tulips which would not appreciate the extra watering they would get in the summer if I planted the strawberries with them. Annette