Landcare Agony Aunt – Asparago Away

Dear Agony Aunt,

We have a beautiful bush setting on our property but the understorey has a lot of Ground Asparagus. The birds sit in the trees above and poop the seeds everywhere. I don’t want to spray, but I’m finding it challenging to remove the larger Asparagus by hand. It’s just setting seed and I really want to remove it before the seed drops. I find it difficult to get my spade under the roots. Are there any useful tools that are better for digging the plants out?
Yours, Asparago Away

Dear Asparago Away,

I have just the tool for you!  It’s called a Hori Hori knife. It’s my go-to tool for digging out Asparagus and can get the small to medium sized plants out with ease. A Hori Hori knife is a Japanese gardening tool. It’s made of strong steel with a concave blade and two edges – a sharp, straight edge and a serrated edge that can cut through most fibrous roots. They start around $50 and they’re well worth the price.

When removing Asparagus, you only need to cut out the crown where the stems emerge from. The fibrous root system and tubers can be left in the ground. This technique is called crowning. The easiest way is to cut off the stems and foliage; dig the Hori knife into the ground near the crown; cut all of the roots around the crown just below the surface and then lift the crown out of the ground.

 The small, watery tubers hold moisture and nutrients for the plant and can’t reproduce vegetatively so it’s fine to leave them. Leaving the root mat in the ground is a great way to minimise soil erosion especially on slopes and in sandy soils.  Make sure you either throw the crowns in the bin or leave them hanging in a tree to dry out. Crowns left on the ground can reshoot and continue to grow.

Happy digging!

From Your Landcare Agony Aunt