This is a reply to a really old link but others may benefit... I would dig up the whole bed in the fall and replant it. Do this when the 'ferns' start to turn a bit brown. There will also likely be lots of extra crowns to transplant to other locations, as there will not be room in the current bed to put them. At that time, remove the sod, and dig out the soil to asparagus planting depth, and sift it to remove as many roots as possible. Then plant the asparagus as recommended for your area, but mulch with lots of leaves (or other organic material like old hay or straw - not herbicide applied grass clippings - as some herbicides could harm the asparagus). Put on six inches or even more. It will compact overwinter and asparagus comes up through heavy mulch while grass does not. Next year you should have more asparagus that ever. Keep vigilant and weed out every blade of grass. I use POAST - a grass herbicide myself! But I replant too.

prune one large trunk from each plant as close to the ground as possible ... 3 to 6 inches ... DO NOT PRUNE at height ... for each cut.. you will get 3 to 5 new branches... for a bush/shrub .. you want that as close to the ground as possible.. if you do it up high.. your problem will be solved.. in a year or two.. then the large trunks break from the large bush your created 6 to 8 feet above the ground... make sense ... i do this.. right now in z5 .. just after flowering.. and you might be able to get new sprays that actually set bud in fall ... google PRUNING SHRUBS [link below]..... and i am sure you will find a couple million web sites that tell you to do it after flowering.. and it do it at ground level ... if you get a pleasant result... in fall take another off each ... and then after flowering next summer.. take the last large one ... IF you figure out how to actually kill a lilac.. let me know.. its nearly impossible... ergo.. have no fear... the reason to take up to 1/3 only of the plant.. is that you insure that you have some flowers on the unpruned... just in case the pruned dont bloom.. set bud ken Here is a link that might be useful: only 211,000 sites ....

Thanks Ken. I had never seen a lilac like mine either - it had just one trunk, approximately 3-4" in diameter, and it looked as though it had been limbed up into a tree form at some point. However, when I inherited it, there were only two or three leggy branches coming off the trunk, about 4' off the ground, and foliage only at the very tips of those branches. It's located in a spot where it doesn't get as much sun as it probably should due to a large privet and some mulberry trees nearby. I cut back the privet and my neighbor is planning to remove the mulberries soon, so hopefully with those changes it will start getting the sun it needs. I'll just remove the suckers that are too close to the fence and hope for the best!

Sam: The back is fiberboard. The inside walls are not finished but it is very dirty. I haven't mentioned the odor because right now it's too coated with crud to smell it. The whole thing smells pretty musty. After I clean it a bit better I'll sand it to get the smell back. I'll try to get you a better picture of it soon. Probably some close-ups of the finished sides and the unfinished inside. Not enough light to get a good picture tonight. Maifleur: The triangular area you mentioned in the picture above the door that's loose is actually part of that door where it had broken off the side of it in the hinge area. Edited to add: Also, I talked to my husband about the possibility of the bubbling being caused by sap from fresh cut wood and he pointed out to me that if it hadn't been dried, that as it started drying on it's own it would have shrunk and left gaps between the boards. Since it doesn't have any gaps, I guess that leaves it as someone trying to remove the finish using heat. The only other cause I've read about is from prolonged direct sun exposure, but if it was that, it would have been on just whatever sides were facing the sun, not on both sides and the front.