Hi Jenny, You said: "We're moving to KS in Aug/Sept, so I want to know if I can start my patch then, or do I need to wait for spring/summer." Short answer...you really need to wait until Spring. Sorry, but you'll be disappointed if you choose otherwise, for at least two reasons. 1/ You'll find it almost impossible to find viable, quality crowns later than about March or April, possibly as late as May. The growers gear their production for this period of delivery, for good reason. (see #2) 2/ New 'gus crowns need the warmth and moisture of Spring to get a healthy start. Crowns (even if you could find them) would almost surely succumb to rot if planted in the near-Fall, with the colder temps arriving so soon. I certainly understand your excitement about finally getting your own 'gus bed started, but pleast wait and do it when you stand a chance of success. I'll offer you a link below. Go to the Home Growers section....much good advice there. Happy 'gus growing, Jenny! Hal Here is a link that might be useful: Jersey Asparagus Farms

Hi Dan, I dug through my computer history and found the page I loved so much about asparagus roots. I've switched from gardening my veggies next door in the sun to only my own yard recently, so have been useing my beloved computer. Let's start with .. remember asparagus gets REALLY tall. The ferns come up to my shoulder height and are so beautiful I'm thinking about useing my new planting as a background for a perennial bed this time 'round. Maybe. So be sure your spot is not going to shade anything that wants sun. I'm wondering about your soil too. The newer , popular varieties , all male, start with the word Jersey ! So maybe your in the most perfect spot ever to grow this ? Jersey Giant, and the other two I forget, but they both start with Jersey. Asparagus wants alkaline soil, so here in my slightly acid soil, it's the only thing I use dolomite lime for. I would definitely skip the peat moss.. super acid. Vermiculite : I'm not a big fan. Pick up a piece and squish it between your fingers. No rebound. It's just lays there flat as a pancake. Vermiculite retains moisture nicely, so it's a good addition to a seed starting tray, but other than that, it's always seemed like money for physiological gain only. What you want is fiber. Your compost is perfect. When I need more, I tend to use fine pumice..but what with those roots going two feet the first year and a total of ten feet later, I'm not too sure they need that sort of help. ;) They are heavy feeders.. so well aged manure fits the menu. I do use on occasion a mix a local fuel company sells, of our city yard compost and mushroom compost. It's such nice stuff ! There are those that will not use any city compost due to residents use of lawn ferts and such, but with my mix it's so dilute and I got to thinking my own tree leaves..and I have too many.. are filled with car pollution. Uck.. but it's the best I've got. Balancing out all the pollutants I do avoid, and those I can't ... I have tossed some of this around veggies now and then. Mostly when I'm short of the home made stuff. Mushroom compost is pre-limed BTW. Maybe go to a local specialty nursery and see what they recommend for your area? This time of year they really need the business and have time to help with questions like this. Mid-week is best. Your county extension service might also be a good source, and easy to Google. Looking forward to learning all about Jersey asparagus. Here is a link that might be useful: asparagus roots, ten feet down !

Thanks for the info. it is definitely on my list! I have AUTUMN JEWELS from you, Debra. It looks JUST like your picture - excellent bright color. Unfortunately, I didn't have the smarts to plant it with compatible colors. Visualize WEBSTER'S PINK WONDER behind, ON YOUR KNEES YOU WILL FIND HIM (muddy "rose red") behind and to the right, and OH WHAT A BEAUTIFUL MORNING (peach pink) next to it. Not a felicitous combo, that's for sure. I persist in plopping things in wherever I find a spot, with the best of intentions to move them to better places next time. Next time never seems to arrive.

Pam, I don't think I've grown many of Twilley's varieties, but I intend to start trying some of them every year. For 2013, I'm thinking of trying a couple of their broccoli varieties (Castle Dome and Coronado Crown) that have received very good reviews from Farmerdill on the Cornell website. I figure if they do well for him in Georgia, they ought to grow well here as well. I might try a couple of the lettuce varieties they carry too. I'm always on the hunt for lettuce varieties that can ignore the early 90-degree-plus days that hit us randomly in March and April some years. I hate it when early hot days cause the lettuce to bolt earlier than it should. That happened both in 2011 and 2012 because we were hitting the 90s before Easter, which is just ridiculous. One reason I've posted only my 2013 tomato grow list and not the grow list of all other veggies is that I'm still trying to decide which Twilley varieties I'll try this year. As for the seed addiction.....Tim is just happy it is not a shoe, purse or diamond addiction. Seeds are a lot more affordable and don't require much storage space in the closet. Jay, The catalogs and the updated websites seem a little slow this year. I did go to Sample Seed Shop's website last week and order a bunch of seeds from Remy that "Santa Tim" is giving me for Christmas. I also have looked at Peaceful Valley Farm Supply's website, which has updated for 2013. However, a few weeks ago I went to their website and ordered 2012 seed that was on sale for, I think, 50% off, so I don't really need any of their new 2013 seeds. Burpee has updated their website and sends e-mails constantly, but they are pricing themselves right out of my price range. I don't care how promising anything in their catalog sounds--I am not going to pay $5.95 or $6.95 per packet to try a variety that is unproven to me. I try to order Brandy Boy and 4th of July every 3 or 4 years and then not order again until those two are used up. Then, if there is something at Burpee I want to try, I order it when I'm ordering those two tomato varieties. Dixondale did add two new short-day varieties that I'll try this year, but I noticed they didn't add any intermediate or long day types. Of course, they really don't add new ones at a very fast rate. SESE's latest newsletter said they're getting ready to ship the catalog in December. Well, I sure hope it is in early December. I usually get impatient and order online before the catalog gets here which also means the website isn't completely updated yet, and then there's always something in the catalog I wish I'd ordered. The Johnny's Selected Seeds catalog is a special favorite of mine too, as is Baker Creek. I can spend the whole winter looking through the catalogs from Johnny's, SESE and Baker Creek until I practically have them memorized. Forget coffee table books, I love these three coffee table catalogs. I try really hard to get all my seeds ordered and received before the end of the year. There's nothing worse than ordering in January with the expectation the seeds will arrive in a couple of weeks, and then having them back-ordered and not getting them until March or even later. If this drought hangs on, I will push hard to plant everything I can as early as I can in the hope that I can get a good harvest before the heat sets in, and without spending a fortune watering the garden. Last year, the early planting strategy worked incredibly well because we warmed up early, but I didn't plant everything early--only about half. I planted Waltham Butternut transplants from Wal-Mart in March, and was harvesting winter squash by the end of June. That's never happened before (and might never happen again). This year, I'm aiming to improve my harvest of all crops by planting everything as early as is humanly possible. You know, I'd plant the cool-season stuff tomorrow if I thought I could get away with it. : ) Actually, all of the fall cool-season crops are producing very well still which makes it hard for me to think about planting more in mid-winter, but we usually are hitting the teens intermittently for overnight lows by early to mid-December, so the cool-season crops won't keep going indefinitely. Well, except for the kale and chard. I don't know how cold it has to get to really hurt kale or Swiss chard because even when they have freeze damage, they bounce right back. I'm not sure I've had anything hurt them until we got down into the single digit temperatures, and even that only froze them to the ground and then they instantly regrew. I'm ready to sow seeds now, but it is too early. (Way too early!) Every day now I say to myself that I ought to dust off the light shelf, plug it all in and check the bulbs and replace any that seem weak, sterilize a couple of flats and start some seeds, but then I talk myself out of it. This week I noticed some very tiny volunteer tomato plants are growing in the cattle trough with the lettuce. I grew dwarf and cascading tomato varieties in that trough until October when I replaced them with lettuce, kale and chard. I suppose the leaves of the taller greens have protected the baby tomato plants from the frost and freezing temperatures. I think today I might dig up a few of those volunteers, pot them up and put them in the greenhouse if for no other reason than to see how long they last in there before they freeze. On most nights so far this fall the greenhouse is staying consistently 2 to 5 degrees warmer than the outside air. It will stay 5 degrees warmer as opposed to 2 degrees warmer if I had the doors and vents closed by 3 p.m. so the heat can buildup before sunset. If I don't close the vents and doors until just before sunset, it only stays a couple of degrees warmer than the outside air. I also think part of the reason for this is that the days are still pretty warm and the ground isn't real cold yet. I expect that sometime in December I'll see that the greenhouse is going exactly as low as the outside temperature at night. Dawn