Living in such a damp and mild climate like Ireland is. Raised beds are definitely the way to go to improve drainage. Years ago when I lived in Blighty I would dig over my allotment and allow the big clods of earth to be broke down by the frost and rain.
I decided to make a raised bed yesterday from old pieces of wood I had left over like some old cracked scaffolding planks, some posts, my stash of cardboard boxes and my homemade compost.
I didn't even use any screws or nails. My tools were my trusty bow saw and my timber axe that I used to knock the posts in to support the planks:
My allotment apprenticeship served me well. I don't think my vegetables will be bothered that they are growing in a homemade raised bed. The other vegetables in the old baths and fish boxes don't mind either. You don't have to have much money to grow your own vegetables and plants.
Love that I could enlarge the photos and follow the process/progress. That's the sort of thing I could do. Thanks
ReplyDeleteHi Linda. There are loads of raised bed videos over on You Tube. You can make them with timber, stones, concrete building blocks, corrugated iron sheeting...? I once made a raised carrot and parsnip bed with paving slabs stood on end and a couple of inches in the ground. I sieved the soil to remove any small stones and mixed it with bought river sand. My carrots and parsnips were whoppers!
ReplyDeleteI saw someone doing just that on TV the other day - cardboard topped with compost. Husband has ideas of sowing carrots in drainage pipes stood on their end, but hasn't got round to it. I love seeing growers pull really long veg out of these pipes, and it's often a way that kids get into it. I could watch Medwyn Williams for hours. (Do you know who I mean>)
ReplyDeleteHi Veg artist. I do know of Medwyn William's. A champion vegetable grower from Anglesey. Seen him on television at Chelsea flower show.. I use to know someone who grew vegetables like Carrots in drainage pipes and injected them with sugar..? I once bought some Mammoth cabbage plants from Robinson's vegetable seeds near Lancaster. I gave my giant cabbage to a fellow allotment holder my show specimen and he won first prize at a local allotment society show.
ReplyDeleteBig money prizes at these shows! 50p?
DeleteLast of the big spenders😊. It's the prestige of the prizes.
DeleteWe had no access to clean wood when we dug ours so we put in sticks along the sides and made a woven fence with willow and other bendy sticks. Looks very neat and cottage-y. Other than that, just like yours and cost zilch.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds and I am sure looks great Oneviking girl. I have seen beds made with pebbles and traditional lazy beds were very popular in Ireland and Scotland. Its good to resource what ever materials we have available.
DeleteWell done Tight Wad! Bob Flowerdew would be proud of you and Lancashire lass Carol Klein would no doubt be happy to roll around on your raised bed before showing you how to use your dibber properly. Maybe you would prefer Christine Walkden?
ReplyDeleteThanks YP. Two great plants women from up north who now live in the south.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you went to the same school of building as F. Many hours I have spent supervising the busting up of old pallets left lying about the allotment we acquired, recovering nails (and even straightening them!) and cutting stakes out of the hawthorn hedge then building a box just like your one even down to the cardboard in the bottom. We filled it with rotted stuff from an enormous pile behind the local stables. She grew spuds, salad greens and Jerusalem artichokes in hers. Our bean fence was made on the 'A' frame of an old swing set, the metal pipes of which she found discarded in long grass when she was helping Mr B chase down a swarm of my bees one day. Waste nothing...
ReplyDeleteHi Tigger. I have spent my life doing it Tigger. Looking in builders skips, beach combing, renting allotments and see the myriad of make do and mend ideas on show. I once knew someone who made their own polytunnel from plastic water pipes for hoops and covered it with thick builders polythene sheeting. Waste not waste nothing.👍
DeleteAll my vegetable and fruit is grown in raised beds, they were started of the sme way with weeds cut short, more weeds on top, the men peed on it and it was covered with cardboard and soil. The only exception, that gave a later problem, was with the asparagus beds. I wish I had cleared the couch grass first.
ReplyDeleteHave picked two bunches of asparagus so far this year. Lovely.
Kathy
Great stuff Kathy. Hi find fym is prone to 'twitch' or couch grass. Especially cow manure which is a cold manure unlike horse manure. All manure needs to be really well rotted or else you encounter problems like weeds. Being an organic or natural gardener I don't use weedkillers and attempt to tackle pernicious weeds with more sustainable ways. The asparagus sounds divine. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteYes we are organic also ,since 1998/ Luckily ,none of the farmers spray ,near here as it is all sheep and cattle.
ReplyDeleteKathy
Same here. I sometimes feel tempted to spray or weed lick the rushes in the fields.
ReplyDelete