Good luck with the asparagus bed. Off-topic, some other veggies I've found to be well-adapted in the Valley include Contender bean for early, "beany" green bean fans (spring only - they get fibrous - not stringy - in cool fall weather). Maxibel is the best bush filet I've found for our climate. Romano Gold does surprisingly well for a yellow bean and for a Romano type, up until about the middle of June, with Romanette performing even better for a Romano in hot weather (though not as well as the most heat-tolerant bush varieties). Get it from Crosman Seed Co. Heat-tolerant Brio, Matador or Festina beans are generally good for harvest up to early July (Brio also performs well when planted in August for fall harvest - haven't tried the others then) and I like Black Valentine or Coco Rose de Prague as green or shelly beans in variable fall weather. Fortex pole bean is great when the weather cooperates. Plant some Fordhook 242 or pole limas for fall harvest. They grow well in hot weather, but don't set beans until fall. Much better as green shellies than dried. Cook until soft and add a little butter for luxurious flavor. Edamame soybeans do very well here, and can be "picked" in the hottest summer weather by whacking off whole stems and bringing them inside for preparation. 'Tourth of July' tomato is very early and sweetens during our hot summers when preventing sunscald on the big varieties is a challenge. 'Magda', a Lebanese-style zucchini from France performs extremely well. 'Summer Dance' cucumber from Pinetree stays sweet and productive in summer - never bitter - if grown on a fence. The Italian climbing summer squashes like Zucchetta Rampicante Tromboncino (C. moschata) grow fast enough for a summer shade structure - try growing with one of the Cucuzzi type edible gourds, good barely steamed when young, pared and stuffed when like a baseball bat. Flavors are different from zucchini. The Butternut family of winter squashes (C. moschata) are best adapted here. Try "Tahitian". 'Early Sugarshaw' melon is exceptional here, but you may no longer be able to find seed. Try another Crenshaw, though. Protect ripening melons from sunscald. Banana melon (the orange-fleshed type) is a fun novelty. Most melon varieties do well in the Valley, but watch the Charentais types for cracking - restrict water when ripening even more than for other melons. 'Extra Summer Sweet' is a great little Japanese melon. You might put some in your future asparagus bed this summer. For fall, try pretty little Oasis, Hakeuri or White Lady turnips and big, ugly 'Just Right' for later harvest. All have sweet, flavorful roots and sweet hairless tops with a tough midrib. Turnips are planted commercially in the valley in September, but you could start planting the little "summer turnips" above in late August. 'Gilfeather' turnip/rutabaga is good for storage. Plant some kohlrabi in August or early September, too. For winter harvest, Tatsoi and similar Asian greens are decorative. Tyfon is a sweet, edible cover crop. Also mild Savannah hybrid mustard, the only thing I have had passersby stop and ask to buy from my garden. Bolting of leftover greens and unharvested turnips in late January and February may attract bees to pollenize fruit trees. Have fun gardening. Do you have some favorite Valley varieties? Carolyn Here is a link that might be useful: Extra Summer Sweet melon

I planted 10 crowns of Jersey Knight & 10 crowns of Purple Passion in 2009, plus I planted some left over crowns (maybe 12 or so) in my parents garden the same spring. This year was the first year we could eat the asparagus, and we did. All of it! Maybe it was the joy of eating super fresh homegrown asparagus, but we never got tired of it. BTW, the Jersey Knight was earlier and more productive than the Purple Passion for both my parents & me. The Jersey Knight tasted awesome, but the Purple Passion was even more awesome! Another thought, since this was my first time growing asparagus & all my knowledge came from books/internet I had this vision of asparagus stalks shooting up rather uniformly like the stuff you see all packaged in the stores. Well they didn't (of course!) They shot up at will, so I'm glad I planted a good sized bed so I would have enough shoots for a meal every 2-4 days. If I had only 5 plants, I would be eating a stalk or two every now and again. denno's right. Asparagus crowns usually come in bundles of 20. Plant 20, in a couple of years you'll be so glad you did!

The good news is that your asparagus ferns are tall and wide. That means that they are putting lots of nutrients back into the roots so that you should have a good harvest next year. Cutting them back is not a good idea because then you are cutting back the plant's ability to store food in the roots for next spring. I've never transplanted a whole asparagus bed, but the berries you speak of are seeds and will form new (small) plants. You want your plants to be about 3 years old before you begin a light harvest. Every year either birds or wind wind up moving those berries to another part of my garden and I (in the early spring) transplant them to my continuously enlarging asparagus bed.

I'm not sure about staining redwood since it is such a beautiful wood to start with but a couple coats of boiled linseed oil would help seal it and should bring out the colors some.