Hmmm, I think my raised beds for fruit and veg may be a sympton of garden design not keeping up with developments since....I planned to do such raised beds one day. In the meantime I started developing the rest of the garden and so far have made three flower beds. Adding manure, using grit when planting, and mulching with bark / chipped hedge trimmings/ local leaves. Achillea and Echinacea are doing just fine. 5 out of 7 of my dahlias survived the winter when I didnt dig them up. So with some improvement my soil is obviously ok. So I why am I still thinking raised beds for fruit?!
I might end up with a bit of both, as I'm not desperate to make a raised bed for growing reasons, but I think a border could be useful to corden off the growing bed from the path. The bed is already mounded above floor level because I dug out a small bank yesterday and put the soil on the bed. I'm going to put a low border on the bed and then mix in some goodies to improve the quality of the soil. Having said that, I think the soil is pretty good already, despite a higher than normal amount of stones, which seem to have been added by previous owners - for decorative purposes. Hopefully, I can de-stone as I go
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Good stuff - now you can crack on with what you want to plant sooner than you thought. Add extra nutrition anyway when you start putting plants in
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Hmmm, I think my raised beds for fruit and veg may be a sympton of garden design not keeping up with developments since....I planned to do such raised beds one day. In the meantime I started developing the rest of the garden and so far have made three flower beds. Adding manure, using grit when planting, and mulching with bark / chipped hedge trimmings/ local leaves. Achillea and Echinacea are doing just fine. 5 out of 7 of my dahlias survived the winter when I didnt dig them up. So with some improvement my soil is obviously ok. So I why am I still thinking raised beds for fruit?!
Which way are you going 30x7?
I might end up with a bit of both, as I'm not desperate to make a raised bed for growing reasons, but I think a border could be useful to corden off the growing bed from the path. The bed is already mounded above floor level because I dug out a small bank yesterday and put the soil on the bed. I'm going to put a low border on the bed and then mix in some goodies to improve the quality of the soil. Having said that, I think the soil is pretty good already, despite a higher than normal amount of stones, which seem to have been added by previous owners - for decorative purposes. Hopefully, I can de-stone as I go