Removal of Japanese honeysuckle is possible! You need a good eye to notice the pattern of the leaves, but most importantly, you need to be persistent. Before going to chemicals, attack by mechanical means. Fall is the best time of year to do this; the other plants (in your case, asparagus) are out of the way, and you can clearly see the honeysuckle. Water the bed well; you want the ground to be soft but not muddy. Wear garden gloves. You may want to use sharp garden clippers. Simply pull up the honeysuckle by hand. That should get the vast majority of it, unless some is so close to the asparagus that you fear to damage it. If you have difficulty removing older plants because of the depth of the roots, cut the roots off an inch or so below the soil level. I believe the roots will not sprout new plants if severed that deep. With this method, you should be able to get at least 95% of the honeysuckle. Just be sure to check for new growth in the spring. Then check every fall and spring. (And be glad you don't have an acre of it.) Once things are under control in the asparagus bed, you'll need to go after the runners in the 20' between the fence and the veggie garden. Unfortunately, you may also have propagation from seedpods in the fence area. [I have Japanese honeysuckle growing in large chunks of the neighborhood, but at least no one's demanding I keep a patch of it on my own property.] At times I've sprayed with triclopyr (Ortho Max Tough Brush and Poison Ivy Killer); that was a major factor in eliminating most of the honeysuckle from the second area I tackled. I buy the concentrate (poison ivy used to be a major problem); Home Depot carries it. I've generally sprayed during the winter, and repeated spraying was necessary. Really, tearing it out by hand works much better. Here are some recommendations by the experts: http://www.nps.gov/plants/alien/fact/loja1.htm http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry/invasivetutorial/Japanese_honeysuckle_M_C.htm

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 !

Okay, we've been thinking on this plan, and we're looking at a major change -- we're very open to your thoughts: The big-deal change is that we've cut off the two secondary bedrooms. We are kind of ambivalent about whether to go with a one-story house or a story-and-a-half. I'm pretty good at visualizing how a floor plan would flow, but that skill does not extend to staircases and upstairs rooms, so please don't criticize my staircase. I'd let the architect draw in a nice staircase that'd suit the house -- and he could add in the two bedrooms and bath at the same time. The benefit: This gives us more natural light in the Great Room. I'm thinking three windows /one door across the back . . . plus one window to the left of the fireplace and two windows on the side near the porch. With more natural light, the large covered back porch is not a problem; in fact, it becomes an asset since the back of the house will face the hot, western sun. I've moved the fireplace to the left a bit, allowing for a larger TV /media area. I also like the slightly asymetrical look. I've reverted to NafNaf's original plan with the small coat closet and the appliance pantry -- yes, I know that the lines don't match up well. I literally did this with scissors and tape; pretend it fits in nicely, please. While you're pretending things, pretend too that I taped that Great Room wall on straight. I've enlarged the pantry -- yes, we really do want this much pantry space. I have 2/3 this much space now, and I have stuff in the attic and on the floor. Much of it is cake pans and catering items; no, I'm not willing to part with any of it! Bonus: I'd add a pass-through window from the kitchen to the pantry. The coat closet won't get a whole lot of usage, but I hate not to have one at all. What NafNaf has called an Appliance Pantry, I'd call a China Closet -- and I think I LOVE that feature. I've made that little closet /cabinet area just inside the back door into a desk. This is to be a retirement house, so we don't feel the need for a full-fledged office like we have now. This desk, however, will give us space to sort the mail, charge iPads and phones, and so forth -- I think more than anything, it'll keep "paper clutter" out of the rest of the house. I do recognize that this isn't an ideal spot for people to sit and work at a desk, but I anticipate it'll be more of a storage /organization area than an actual sit-down-and-work area. Do you see the weak point in my new plan? I betcha do: By moving the bedrooms upstairs, I've just lost my guest-accessible downstairs bath. I'm not opposed to having guests use the master bath (this is not a grand house -- more of a cottage), and that's the most economical option, but I'd need another door. Thing is, I like the size and layout of the bath as it's shown. The most obvious thing is to lose a part of the vanity to allow another door, but I'm not loving that idea. I suppose we could move the coat closet under the stairs (again, a small coat closet is FINE here in the South), and use the current coat closet as a bathroom. The Appliance Pantry-turned China Closet could become shallow. Thing is, that's a rather . . . public location. Or we could widen the garage entrance hallway a bit to allow that small closet to become a half bath. The laundry room is plenty spacious, and I wouldn't be opposed to stealing a bit of space from it. What's a minimum-minimum-minimum size for a half bath?

In my experience, the deeper the roots are, the sturdier the plants will be. They won't fall over as easily. However, they also will be later to emerge. I'm approaching 3,000 plants now. The first 1,600 I used a trencher and planted them probably too deep. I've been adding 300-500/yr, trying to meet demand. I no longer see the need to baby asparagus and only back fill once now. I'll dig a ten inch deep trench and just lay the crown against the side of the trench and cover. I'll back fill once after the ferns emerge. I never fertilize new plantings but do heavily sweeten the soil. I'll heavily cover the bottom of the trench w/lime and a little super phosphate to get them off to a good start. You want to develop roots, not foliage. I don't fertilize until the second season. The top of the crown produces stalks, not roots. As noted planting them deeper will just give them added strength to hold them upright. However, if all your soil is very soft, they'll fall over regardless. My soil is mixed, and the ones in heavier clay perform really as well as those planted in the loamier type. I even planted a couple hundred across the top of my pond dam in heavily packed clay. They were planted the shallowest of all and have been a little slower to produce, but absolutely none have fallen over and they look great. Honestly, I see little overall difference w/the ones I labored on intensely and the ones I took shortcuts with.