Tell us how you planted them. I suspect there's something keeping them from going down more deeply in the soil below your raised bed, but it is hard to guess if that's the case without knowing how deeply they were planted in the first place.

They were planted March 2016. I filled the beds with compost and brought-in soil. Dug a trench, made little mounds and laid the crowns over the mounds. Then covered the trench with a couple of inches of soil. As the asparagus grew, more dirt was added. Both years we had tall ferns. This is the year I am supposed to harvest for the first time. I actually have a video of me planting them (back when I was going to try to do videos to document my garden progress.) I'll look at the video in a bit and see if I can get some pics to add.

The only thing I can think off...I put cardboard around the edges of the bed after building it--to keep grass from growing in. I assumed it would have decomposed mostly by now, but in the above pics, the cardboard is still present. I'm fairly certain I did not put cardboard on the entire bottom of the bed--just the edges, but because the beds are small, I did plant close to the edge of the bed. I'll come back with some pics in awhile. Our internet is horrible right now, so pictures might not work.

Hmmm. I don't know why the roots are expanding outward so horizontally on top of the ground instead of going down into it. That's odd. I've had spears try to sneak out under the wooden edging sometimes in Spring, but not the roots.

This sort of horizontal escaping root growth conceivably could happen if the ground beneath the raised bed was rock hard clay or rocky/caliche soil or solid rock with imported soil in the raised bed on top of the clay/caliche/rock. When that happens, the roots can happily grow through the imported soil that is softer and fluffier, but then refuse to grow into the harder soil beneath. A person can see roots balk at growing in a similar way when they dig a hole for a fruit tree and refill the hole with imported soil that is a different texture from the native soil. In that situation, the roots prefer the imported fluffy soil and refuse to push out into the harder native soil. I'm not sure if that is the sort of thing you're seeing here because I don't remember how awful your soil beneath the raised beds either is or isn't.

I cannot think of much of a fix, other than perhaps hammering in metal landscape edging right along the wooden edges of the beds. The metal edging, which I suppose is probably at least 4" tall/deep when hammered into the ground, would force the roots to go downward for another few inches anyway.

Would you leave the roots, cover them, or cut them off?

Our ground is regular Oklahoma ground--all sorts of weeds and grass grow easily in it. It's hard to imagine that asparagus couldn't handle it.

The plan is to make a walk way around the garden--somewhere between a foot or two--and then fence. The asparagus beds are at the north edge. I could cover the roots with compost and eventually that area will become a pathway with wood chips as a cover. I could dig under the roots and try to push them down and then cover them. So weird. The only think I can think of, is the cardboard hindered the roots along the edge of the bed.

Thank you.

I wonder if the cardboard held moisture and/or decomposed to make the soil moist longer and richer there and thus drew the roots to seek out that edge? And now the roots have gone through and are looking for more of that yummy, yummy cardboard? I'd be inclined to do nothing as I think the roots will basically air prune themselves.

Thanks, Mia. I will just leave them alone and see what happens!