Uses for asparagus fronds?

I've been growing asparagus for a few years now and love it.

But the harvest season is pretty short (peaks for a few weeks in late April/early May for me) and then I've got a mess of green ferns for the next 5 months. I know it's best to leave the green ferns alone so they can pour energy into the roots.

But when they start to yellow and brown and it's time to cut them down and mulch for winter, I was wondering if I could use them for something other than compost.

Has anyone tried to use the browning fronds as animal fodder? There's so much of it and it would be nice if I could work it into my late fall/winter feed when forage starts to get scarcer.

Hi Sam,
Could you just use it as mulch somewhere else? I could see putting it on a bed during the winter like you might put straw, to help protect and suppress weeds.

I've only been growing asparagus for four years, but I just leave it standing until end of May before anything much starts coming up and then I push it all over in place to help block weeds right there in the asparagus bed. I figure it's probably habitat for something, so I might as well let them use it. And then it helps with my mulch needs. But I've read that's a no-no, just no good explanation of why.

Sam Shade wrote:Has anyone tried to use the browning fronds as animal fodder?

I don't know what kind of animals you have, but my rabbits LOVE asparagus fronds. They tend to get them fresh, rather than browning, but when they've gotten yellow ones it didn't seem to dampen their enthusiasm.

I've struggled with finding a use for the space that asparagus fronds take up, but I think I have found something that I like.

Normally I grow strawberries with my asparagus and they compliment each other to a degree. This year I planted climbing beans with the intention of them trellising up nearby fencing but instead it utilized the spacious asparagus fronds with great success. I did have a green amaranth that decided to grow in the middle of the asparagus patch that helped stabilize the mass of beans but I will repeat the experiment next year and see how it does with more intentional planting.