I have piked and filled them with fym and branches and weeds and grass and onion tops and to give them a few inches of topsoil that I dug by hand. Up to now I have completed all eight of them.
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All ready for sowing and planting.
Oil tank raised beds.
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New IBC filled raised beds. They are not so rigid like the oil tanks ones but they will be fine for growing vegetables.
You can also see my plants in pots in my🪴 perennials nursery in the front garden which use to be a lawn. I don't think we need half the lawns we have. Having to mow them weekly, buy petrol, make noise and then dispose or compost the grass clippings?
You can see some of the half green coloured heating oil tanks I drilled and filled and now planted a couple of weeks ago.
In total we now have seventeen plastic raised beds and I will collect more if I can get my hands on them.
The last two winters have been the wettest on record and I believe raised beds are the way to go if the water table is going to be so full.
Also I will be 61 in December and I am now making provision for us to grow vegetables in our old age. It may come to a time when I can no longer dig or pike but I will still be able to carry a bucket and sow seeds by hand and plant with a trowel.
Yesterday l read online that Greenpeace say that there are nearly 175000 people on allotment waiting lists in the UK. Some people have been waiting for 15 years. Allotments were designed to feed a family of four. So if these people on the waiting list had allotments they could provide fresh vegetables for 700000 people:
I think my plastic raised beds would or could cut down the allotment waiting lists. People could grow on derelict land, back yards or even on concrete. You don't need to have an allotment , garden or smallholding to grow vegetables. You just need something to grow them in. We live in a world of plastic and it is not going to go away. If we recycle it or repurpose it for growing we will be doing our bit. I think my plastic raised beds will last us out.
None of the the raised beds or filling growing medium cost me anything. We just had to buy the seeds and onion sets and seed potatoes. Container garden replaces the need to plant directly in the soil. Even a few few plant pots or buckets will grow some vegetables or flowers
Allotments are also leisure gardens and they are good for us both physically and mental.
The waiting lists for allotments is a crime. Our council manages allotments so badly that around 1/5th of the 50 or so in the block where mine was are actually gardened. There is, allegedly a 5 year waiting list here. One assumes the ungardened plots are being paid for each year but are going unused and are simply a reservoir of weeds - some get terribly overgrown with blackberry or are used as a dumping ground for masses of junk. One woman I tried to help when she arrived over 10 years ago still has her plot and has never grown a single thing on it. What allotment managers would permit that when they have a 5 year waiting list? A bit of attention to management might bring that waiting list of 175000 down considerably.
ReplyDeleteThanks for Tigger's Mum. I think its heartbreaking that people can not rent their own piece of land to grow their vegetables and plants. There is plenty of private estates like Sandringham who could rent some of their land. Also farmers could rent some of their fields. But even then farmers who claim CAP are only allowed to grow grass. When I was a child and came on holiday to West Cork every ( or so it seemed) farm had a field for growing their vegetables for themselves and the carthorse and cows. I agree better allotment management would help bring down the waitin lists.
DeletePS - you are right about lawn. I have decided we need enough to sit on and the rest can be more balanced eco-systems and more productive spaces. Mowed grass has become an abomination to me...
ReplyDeleteThe Kerry couple who I collected Jerusalem artichokes from recently had constructed wooden raised beds in their front and back gardens to grow vegetables instead of having to mow grass every week. I strim my back lawn every month and the front lawn is a plant nursery and probably for some more raised beds. I get tired of listening to lawnmowers.
ReplyDeleteI applaud both your re-purposing of such containers and your practical thoughts about your old age. However, you should consider a smooth concrete path between the raised beds for when you are wheelchair-bound. Jean won't be able to push you over uneven terrain and even if you are in a souped-up mobility scooter it won't be able to cope.
ReplyDeleteThanks YP. Paved paths would be a good idea YP. I want to still grow vegetables when I am old or unable to dig and barrow like I do now. A mobility scooter would be fine for me if they reduced the 80 KM speed limit on rural roads.
DeleteIt's the perfect answer, repurposing redundant large plastic containers, I find raised beds much better, providing they are not too high as they do dry out. We are semi rural here and we have few allotments, most homes built at the time of ours has decent back gardens, ours is huge, but with a full size garage (which is never used for a car as you can't drive a car through the space between our houses), a huge extension and my greenhouse, we still have loads of growing room. Our front garden as with many others have been given over to 2 car parking spaces, hubby has managed to plant around the parking area. We are older than you and opted for fake grass, but it's only a small space, loads of flowers, veg and a couple of trees keep the wildlife coming to visit.
ReplyDeleteThanks Marlene. Going off your last post I can see your garden is well thought out and planned. Its amazing what you can grow in containers even if you don't have a garden or allotment.
ReplyDeleteThis is our 15th year here, so we waited and used the space, to see what we could do and what we really wanted and what we could afford.
DeleteYes Marlene it's a good idea to see what plants are already growing in your garden and it evolves in time. I am always making changes to my gardens and polytunnel.
DeleteStill growing most of our vegetables and fruit and we are 84.
ReplyDeleteTree pruning is ok, repairing the barn roof is not easy .
Kathy
You are remarkable Kathy. I hope we are still garden active when we are in our eighties.
ReplyDeleteI would add, we have 3 tunnels, the biggest 69ft long and all our outside beds are raised, so no real digging. . Also sort out your watering system ,so you have to carry the minimum of water yourself.
ReplyDeleteThw big tunnel is half used for fruit trees, apricots , peaches, plums,, cherries and pears sp pruning takes a time.I wish I had kept all my soft fruit inside also.
Kathy
69 feet long? I just paced ours and it's 56 of my Wellington boots Kathy. I have never really grown much fruit. I had apple trees but the blossom got blown off every year. I have a really long hosepipe which will water the polytunnel, perennials nursery and veg plot. I may get another tunnel. We still dream of moving to Portugal but I don't know if we could grow summer vegetables like potatoes there.
ReplyDeleteWe only have a borehole , so we have to husband our water, after last years problems we have10 IBCs instead of 4, so hopefully we will be ok this year . Rain water i good for the plants,it has extra nitrogen in it
DeleteI grow the fruit in the tunnel ao that they escape the weather. The apricots are as big as peaches and juicy, reaklly delicious. We have more fruit than we can use, I bottle a lot for the winter.and give some away. Canker is a problem with out door trees here.
The Ibc usually come with a metal frame ,which holds them in shape.
Kathy
Kathy
Yes Kathy IBC tanks usually do come with a metal cage. We had to pay for a new well to be bored. I dowsed for the wate with a stick r and when they drilled the water it came up the pipe without a pump. There's massive amounts of lakes and rivers under our feet. Like you say rainwater is full of nitrogen. Tap water is full of chemicals. Not that the mains supply is near us. Our new well cost us 4000 Euros. Hope we won't need to drill another one.
ReplyDeleteUsing derelict land is not allowed here in Australia. I believe a person may even be fined for doing so.
ReplyDeleteIam not suggesting guerrilla gardening River. If people could obtain permission first off the relevant landowners they could use the land for allotments or farming.
ReplyDelete