Thanks Jason, it's been hard work but worth it! We wanted to try and make sure we could walk round the beds all year round as the bottom corner of the garden tends to get very wet/muddy and I could imagine a trail of muddy footprints through the house! I am wishing we'd perhaps made the slate 'paths' a bit wider but again it would mean losing more of the 'play space'. I'm looking forward to the montana clematis getting going and covering the very bare trellis at the back to soften things a little and hopefully encourage back some of the birds
I look forward to watching this thread and seeing your beds come to life, busy times!
I went with raised beds, mainly so it's easier to tend, the no tread idea is awesome for digging over at start of the season, also weeding, it's all so much easier. The work is at the start, also, an important consideration, well for me anyways was that my garden is almost all south-facing. The only place I can grow primulas is behind a windbreak lattice fence!!! Raised beds enable the soil to heat up lots quicker, hence allowing a small extension in the growing season, or much bigger if using tunnel cloche's or similar. Infact with a little ingenuity, some lengths of pvc pipe some pipe grips and some clear polyethene, you can easily convert entire raised beds into mini greenhouses. Again, where I live major problem with my 2 resident cats and also the urban foxes who seem to love marking and digging, with raised beds so very easy to net off. I personally have put decent quality anti-weed matting down and fine gravel all around the bed area. The gravel heats up in the day the slugs and snails really don't enjoy it, significantly less trouble there and less need for nasty pellets. Also no weeding!!! I have a border running around the outside that is planted up with some good stinky marigolds in the summer, and touch-wood the dreaded carrot-fly stays away. Raised beds are a lot of work to setup don't get me wrong. BUT the bonuses far outweigh the negatives, never worrying about root veg forking, honestly it makes things much more simplified. Just my tuppence worth
Sounds like you have a neat set up BrummieBen, have you got any pictures of your beds?
I finally finished building and filling mine last weekend, however I noticed the first bed i filled (about 2 weeks ago) is still sodden and really really wet with big clumps of soil. Where as the one i filled on Saturday just gone is moist, but just right with a nice loose tilth type soil
I posted on another thread and it looks like its because i didn't dig the ground in the wet one before i filled it.... School boy error!
So now i need to dig it all out, take up the wee block, dig the ground over, then fill it back up!
As others have said, the current craze for raised beds is surely fueled by sellers wanting to profit from kit sales. Deep beds are much cheaper. Sometimes raised beds are better. I have heavy clay soil. It is brilliant, very fertile:
The only negative of clay is that it warms slowly in spring. And it can be poor draining if compacted. I have granite paving between beds, simply to stop the paths getting muddy. The clay is lightened with compost. This year the beds got a bit high, so I used an old pallet to create a raised bed 10cm high. It's purpose is just to retain soil And compost. Raised beds might warm more quickly. However, place a cold frame on top and the soil will warm up nicely. Carrots took one week to appear! Once the seeds germinate, move the cold frame. I also germinate many seeds in modules, in a cold frame, which gets round the cold soil.
Square foot gardening is another fad, lots of good ideas, few if any new though, and pushed by sellers. Incidentally, raised beds are easy to make. Old pallets will do. Or buy wood from Wickes et al. T'is easy to do.
Oh, and there is no need to dig, not even clay. Check out Charles Dowding's web site.
I built mine using wood from the local timber merchant Leif. Not sure how effective in terms of crop yields or germination time they will be, but we thought they'd look nicer than the patch of land we had there before.
I built the second one now to use the extra soil i had left. I didnt dig out the one on the right as per my last post. I left it a few more days and seems ok now. Just need to drop a bit of grass seed around the front border now.
Potatoes are in the one on the left, the other is ready for peas, carrots, parsnips, maybe a bit of broccoli if im brave enough...
Jason, those look very nice indeed. I decided to edge the rest of my beds, to retain soil and compost. Treated wood from a DIY shed, for a 5m by 1m by 10cm frame cost £12, not too bad.
Posts
Thanks Jason, it's been hard work but worth it! We wanted to try and make sure we could walk round the beds all year round as the bottom corner of the garden tends to get very wet/muddy and I could imagine a trail of muddy footprints through the house! I am wishing we'd perhaps made the slate 'paths' a bit wider but again it would mean losing more of the 'play space'. I'm looking forward to the montana clematis getting going and covering the very bare trellis at the back to soften things a little and hopefully encourage back some of the birds
I look forward to watching this thread and seeing your beds come to life, busy times!
Forgot to say- we ordered 3 tonnes top soil but ended up needing 5
and a lot of well rotted manure!
Edd - I like your thinking!
I went with raised beds, mainly so it's easier to tend, the no tread idea is awesome for digging over at start of the season, also weeding, it's all so much easier. The work is at the start, also, an important consideration, well for me anyways was that my garden is almost all south-facing. The only place I can grow primulas is behind a windbreak lattice fence!!! Raised beds enable the soil to heat up lots quicker, hence allowing a small extension in the growing season, or much bigger if using tunnel cloche's or similar. Infact with a little ingenuity, some lengths of pvc pipe some pipe grips and some clear polyethene, you can easily convert entire raised beds into mini greenhouses. Again, where I live major problem with my 2 resident cats and also the urban foxes who seem to love marking and digging, with raised beds so very easy to net off. I personally have put decent quality anti-weed matting down and fine gravel all around the bed area. The gravel heats up in the day the slugs and snails really don't enjoy it, significantly less trouble there and less need for nasty pellets. Also no weeding!!! I have a border running around the outside that is planted up with some good stinky marigolds in the summer, and touch-wood the dreaded carrot-fly stays away. Raised beds are a lot of work to setup don't get me wrong. BUT the bonuses far outweigh the negatives, never worrying about root veg forking, honestly it makes things much more simplified. Just my tuppence worth
Sounds like you have a neat set up BrummieBen, have you got any pictures of your beds?
I finally finished building and filling mine last weekend, however I noticed the first bed i filled (about 2 weeks ago) is still sodden and really really wet with big clumps of soil. Where as the one i filled on Saturday just gone is moist, but just right with a nice loose tilth type soil
I posted on another thread and it looks like its because i didn't dig the ground in the wet one before i filled it.... School boy error!
So now i need to dig it all out, take up the wee block, dig the ground over, then fill it back up!
Maybe ill get to plant something eventually!
At least i can my spuds in the other one
As others have said, the current craze for raised beds is surely fueled by sellers wanting to profit from kit sales. Deep beds are much cheaper. Sometimes raised beds are better. I have heavy clay soil. It is brilliant, very fertile:
http://www.chillisgalore.co.uk/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=15574&p=176706#p176706
The only negative of clay is that it warms slowly in spring. And it can be poor draining if compacted. I have granite paving between beds, simply to stop the paths getting muddy. The clay is lightened with compost. This year the beds got a bit high, so I used an old pallet to create a raised bed 10cm high. It's purpose is just to retain soil And compost. Raised beds might warm more quickly. However, place a cold frame on top and the soil will warm up nicely. Carrots took one week to appear! Once the seeds germinate, move the cold frame. I also germinate many seeds in modules, in a cold frame, which gets round the cold soil.
Square foot gardening is another fad, lots of good ideas, few if any new though, and pushed by sellers. Incidentally, raised beds are easy to make. Old pallets will do. Or buy wood from Wickes et al. T'is easy to do.
Oh, and there is no need to dig, not even clay. Check out Charles Dowding's web site.
I built mine using wood from the local timber merchant Leif. Not sure how effective in terms of crop yields or germination time they will be, but we thought they'd look nicer than the patch of land we had there before.
I built the second one now to use the extra soil i had left. I didnt dig out the one on the right as per my last post. I left it a few more days and seems ok now. Just need to drop a bit of grass seed around the front border now.
Potatoes are in the one on the left, the other is ready for peas, carrots, parsnips, maybe a bit of broccoli if im brave enough...
Pictures...
Jason beds look good , must pleased I'm sure they will be productive
Edd ar'nt the straw bales expensive ?
best wishes to you both
Edd if you don't mind keep us posted on straw gardening , sound interesting
Jason, those look very nice indeed. I decided to edge the rest of my beds, to retain soil and compost. Treated wood from a DIY shed, for a 5m by 1m by 10cm frame cost £12, not too bad.