Potato planting question for farmerman

can I plant asparagus next to dill?

that way they can just overtake each other each year, yes?

(I am expanding this year, but I gotta cut my water consumption down.)

think ima go from buckets to raised beds with plywood bottoms to keep the moles out.

The area tilled was where dirt was deposited from where I built a small townhouse project. Here in this part of VA that kind of dirt is a lot of sticky, red clay which we seeded with field grass. We went down last year perhaps 6" adding leaves and stuff and turning it. Your point is well taken about not going too deep.

Onions I buy. Taters home grown are better by far than those which we can buy.

Ive started some new type of artichoke that produces in one season and will hold over and regrow for the big crop. They used to be quite tender but new varietals are available for the north.

I only plant a garden that I can realistically tend. Im at about 4000sq feet and thats plenty to ahndle with our vacations etc. We have someone come in and till every few weeks and

ROCKhead. Heres a Comapnion Planting chart that lists the companions and antagonists. The only dill antagonist I saw was carrots, since dill and carrots are sorta in the same family the pests of one will get at the other (I guess thats why they have them lited).
ANYWAY, heres the charthttp://www.gardensimply.com/comchart.shtml

I grow onions!

Basically I grow what I know we'll eat. I like to go outside and pick a salad before dinner and that includes onions.

The only thing I'm thinking of giving up on this year is corn. I never have any luck with it. I get these nubby little ears that taste good but provide only a few bites each.

Thanks for the companion planting chart, farmerman.

I dont grow corn either. It requires enough density of plants to insure pollination that we let the AMish around us grow corn and they sell it for 3 bucks a dozen and thats fair(and its fresh)

When we picked our onions, we left the dirt on them. Then my grandfather would hang them up from the rafters of the garage. When we got onions from the garage, we would knock the dirt off in a wheelbarrow kept there for the purpose. (We stored potatoes and sweet potatoes in their dirt, too.) The garage had a wonderful smell of onions all winter. I don't recall that any of the root vegetables or onions ever spoiled, so long as they were stored with the dirt on them.

Burpee offers packs of 10 potato mini-tubers for $19 or 2 packs for $30. What is the appropriate quantity for say a family of 4? They offer onion seeds at $5 for 300 or as plants, listed as 2 bunches for $17 or 4 bunches for $26. Same question.

wow, that's very expensive.

That is really expensive!

I buy onion sets -- they're little bulbs and I've had much better luck with them than I have with seeds. The kind I get are from Van Zyvenden - 80 bulbs for about $2.00.

The seed potatoes I bought have 10 seed (which sounds like they can be divided into many plants as each one has many eyes) potatoes per bag for $1.25 per bag.

Thanks for the warning re Burpee's. I knew they are expensive. Van Z seems to sell through Home Depot but we don't have one of them. Nearest one is 25 miles away. But I called our Southern States Farm Co-op and, catching them just at closing time, they said they have potato eyes, onions etc. I didn't want to delay their going home so I didn't pursue the pricing.
Another question for yall. You say you have 4000 sq ft, FM. Do you find it necessary to fence it to ward off deer, groundhogs etc? We trapped and released a dozen groundhogs on my and neighboring properties. But they will be back. Deer are an increasing problem.

prices seem about right.

YEP,Storing roots in their dirt blanket does help the veggie last. The dirt dries and keeps the veggie from bruising.

I have a pretty decent collection of old cookbooks, including Irma Rombaurer's 1931 edition of the "Joy of Cooking." There wasn't a lot of joy in her writing then. But in a later rewriting, after the depression and after WW2, she loosened up and wrote about cooking as an adventure rather than a chore.
Here is a story from a latter book about baked potatoes:
"We have always liked the snug phrase 'baked in their jackets' to describe this process. But we are told that at least one young cook called a home economist at the local utility company and complained that her grocer was unable to supply her with potato-jackets."

Asparagus grows soooooo fast!!!!

these two photos were taken a day apart.
after taking Photo 1 i cut the long spears.
Next day I took photo 2
I'll need to dig these up in winter renovate the bed abd replant them at a decent depth.

Its getting on to be mid spring for you eh? Thats when our asapargus comes up.
Theres another way to renovate the beds, thats by just piling a manure/straw mixture deepe enough over the asparagus plants when your season is over. Let the mix just mulch and itll build the soil . I usually pile straw around the beds each fall and now my asparagus beds are about 6" higher than the rest of the garden.

I start by digging a pit quite deep, laying in lots of rotted straw/manure with the asparagoose roots and wait 3/5 years cutting off below ground level the shoots for the first few years.

thanks Fm (and Dys) for the advice. I need to lift some of the roots and space them out a little especially the smaller ones that do not produce finger thickness spears.
plus the bed is overgrown with self sown violets. mid spring each year we just rip the tops off the violets so you can see the spears. with he depth of the violet vegetation the first few spears are what we call white asparagus. becuase they are not exposed to sunlight they are white instead of green. some say this more of a delicasy.
I'll clean the violets and other weeds out when the aspagaus tops die back. possibly roundup them then lift the roots to space them out, top up the bed with well composted organic matter from the chook pen to which has been added some coplete fertiliser and a hanfull of lime to balance the PH. This should be good for the asparagus as they quite heavy feeders.

how deep dys?
a foot? 6 inch?

For depth I have always used a general rule of thumb for tubers and roots of twice the thickness of the root part being planted. seems to be good but I'm always open to suggestions.

my asparagoose bed was a good 14 to 16 inches deep but a good 4-6 inches rotted straw/manure. always cut/harvest below ground level with a knife.