I actually have asparagus *planned* for my new potager--but the darn bed isn't ready yet due to the weather, and the crowns I mail-ordered are already here!
I am not planning to companion plant; my asparagus is getting an entire 4'x4' bed to itself. I love the way asparagus looks when it's ferned out, so that is probably going to be ornamental enough for me for a few years; I have a separate bed for many herbs and the tomatoes are in a different part of the potager.
In my experience growing asparagus in the past at another property, it definitely doesn't care for competition of any sort, whether weeds or other veggies. That's the main reason why I am starting with a weed-seed-free soil mixture in the bed, and keeping it segregated. I think, though, that even more than weeding it is remembering that it's a pretty heavy feeder. I have had the best results with dehydrated cow manure as a side dressing. I also mulch it, which helps keep weeds down.
Hope this helps!

I have a small patch (3 x 4') of asparagus I put in last year. I mixed purple passion and Jersey. I have had to be vigilant about weeds, but mainly because I started the bed on what was previously an untamed weedy mess. I wound up with some soil erosion because of all the snow and rain and some of my crowns were exposed (the garden has a slight down slope). I top dressed and am hoping for the best. The purple passion is popping up but only 1 crown of the Jersey is doing anything. Keeping fingers crossed.

I have a spot planned for asparagus. I ordered 75 crowns (25 of 3 varieties) and just received notification they have shipped. Of course, my bed is not ready either, I keep hoping the wind will get calmer (gusts of 45 mph today, yippee). I am toying with the idea of pulling any female plants once they are identified. I have often read that the biggest weed for asparagus is asparagus itself. I will be top dressing with worm castings and inoculating the soil too.

How close together do you plant asparagus? I've been thinking about using alyssum as a mulch...it's worked very well with the other vegetables. I'm hoping it will reseed and keep down the weeds in a perennial bed. It's prettier (and has a better fragrance) than most of the other mulches I've tried :)

I planted mine about 6 in apart. In years to come, I am hoping the bed will fill up as the asparagus matures. I'm pretty disappointed with how my bed is fairing so far. The hot weather caused the purple passion to get very tall and yet not many shoots in total have come up. So, I may have not be able to harvest any.

I did a little looking around. The alyssum has fairly shallow roots so it should not be competitive with the deep-rooted asparagus. It would probably look pretty when the 'gus ferns out.

Ali-b, Thanks for checking in to the alyssum for me :)

I'm kind of excited to try it. I also may try some under the purple royalty raspberries. I'm going to try five in the kitchen garden, with the alyssum. Supposedly, purple royalty grows in clumps, like black raspberries, not suckering all over like red raspberries, but you never know until you try LOL.

If I like them, I'll put more raspberries on the outside of the larger vegetable garden and just mulch them with straw or something. I just like more flowers in the potager :)

I was forced to plant most of my asparagus crowns in a large planter due to not knowing where to house it permanently.

Can anyone tell me the best time to transplant? Method?

Thanks you!

I just put in 4 plants. I set aside an area for about 7 or 8 more, but it may be too late to get them this year. I'm still waiting for the 4 I planted to come up.

I had 2 dedicated plots (4x4)in my last potager for asparagus. I never had a great harvest in 5 years. I am not going to grow them in my new potager. I decided to use that space for strawberries instead.