asparagus in a mandala

Hello,

I'm new to these forums and I'm glad I found you- need lots of help!

I've built a 7 bed mandala on the field new to my house. I'm wondering where to site asparagus? I've thought about putting it in the outer beds surrounding the mandala, but I feel it would probably be smarter thing to plant barrier plants and berry shrubs instead- any help would be great! Instead of posting a bunch of pics, here is a link to my album start to finish for this mandala- still working on it.
https://plus.google.com/photos/112919457933810327511/albums/5932100192658129809

Thanks,

Tessa

If you've ever grown or been around asparagus before, it has a fairly short harvest season, and the rest of the summer it makes a big bushy plant that's kind of itchy and irritating to be close to. So it seems that off on the edges somewhere might be a good place for it, somewhere you don't really have to go unless you're picking the asparagus. You might be able to grow a winter crop over the dormant roots if your climate is amenable to that; and/or a vigorous ground cover like a winter squash up under there in the summer (which is also amenable to a one-time harvest)....

Thanks, Alder, that's what I figured. Thanks for the squash idea- that sounds like it might work out.

I'm also wondering about what to grow with it- I've been reading other forums about using asparagus in guilds- any thoughts? I'm considering strawberry for the ground cover.