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New to veg- help me plan a raised bed

srdsrd Posts: 34
in Problem solving
I’ve a Raised bed 2m-2m 
I want to plant
runner beans, broad beans , potatoes, radishes, carrots - how to plan the plot? Anything else I could grow ? Thanks 
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Posts

  • YviestevieYviestevie Posts: 7,066
    I'm just starting to grow veg in a raised bed and have found 'Vegin one Bed' by Huw Richards really useful.  It plans the bed out, tells you when to sow, plant and harvest.  It also gives you a month by month list of what to do when.
    Hi from Kingswinford in the West Midlands
  • srdsrd Posts: 34
    Fab x
  • Janie BJanie B Posts: 963
    Thanks for the recommendation @Yviestevie, I've just ordered it for my OH who is just starting out on his raised bed-veg journey...
    Lincolnshire
  • LG_LG_ Posts: 4,360
    I find that book really useful too - so well laid out and clear, month by month. I'm having to do quite a lot of work to adjust the plans to the things I want to grow, but still very helpful. I'm using it in conjunction with Carol Klein's 'Grow your own veg'
    'If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.'
    - Cicero
  • Nanny BeachNanny Beach Posts: 8,719
    I have a book called "Grow all you can eat in 3 square feet",  There isn't an aurthors' name as such, but its' widely available.which is brilliant, suggests you plant diagonally, determined to try it out.Although I have 2 large raised beds, sub divided the crop rotation is a challenge
  • Nanny BeachNanny Beach Posts: 8,719
    Only grow what you actually WANT to eat!!!
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    edited February 2021
    You can plant what you like the first year if the soil is fresh but thereafter, in order to maximise crops and minimise pests and diseases and nutritional failures, you'll need to rotate your crops.

    I suggest you divide it into 4 square metre areas either square 1 x 1 or oblong 2 x .5 and then use a 4 year crop rotation system such as this - https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=124  or this - https://www.almanac.com/four-bed-crop-rotation-chart-small-gardens#

    and then grow only what you like to eat and if that's too broad a choice, choose to grow what's hard to find or expensive in the shops or what tastes better eaten within minutes of being picked - most veg and fruit to be honest but particularly marked in some such as sweetcorn, fennel, lettuce.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • YviestevieYviestevie Posts: 7,066
    I’ll take a look at that @LG_ I have her other books didn’t realise she had a veg one. 
    Hi from Kingswinford in the West Midlands
  • LG_LG_ Posts: 4,360
    edited February 2021
    @Yviestevie, I have 'Grow your own veg' and 'Grow your own fruit' as separate books, but I think they're now one 'Grow your own fruit & veg' book. I got mine cheap from marketplace so bought older editions.

    I can't rotate as I should, @Obelixx, due to where the beds are in terms of more shaded / too high etc. Also I've had issues with alliums vs legumes before and am wary of mixing them, so it's not straightforward. So far it's been OK, and I do adjust where stuff is placed as far as I can short of proper rotation, but I worry about whether things will deteriorate over time. We'll see.
    'If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.'
    - Cicero
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    edited February 2021
    I can't either @LG_ cos OH is behind on bed creation so I've had to turf out the dahlias to make way for the broad beans and now, after the winter we've had, he's behind on marking out the new dahlia bed!   

    I have my garlic and shallots all planted and growing well now and the PSB will produce its first crop for tomorrow's dinner but after that I'll be wanting space for this year's brassicas and salads and squashes too before long so he needs to get a move on.

    I suspect that as long as the soil is constantly beefed up with applications of garden compost and manure for the hungrier plants and lime for brassicas that most crops grown on a domestic scale will be fine - unless you have obvious problems with disease or pest build up such as canker, club root, eel worm......
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
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