Help - raised beds! Have we totally messed this up?

lolly5648

I have three beds filled with a mix of compost and soil which gets the sun from around 11.30. Last year I grew carrots, summer broccoli, cabbages, runner and French beans, tomatoes and sugar snap peas very successfully.

I was like you, reading what everyone else had grown and thinking mine were doing nothing but if you are patient they will grow. There has been a lot of rain and not that much sun. I seemed to be about 4 weeks behind everyone else but in the end I got a good crop.

PS I was terrible about feeding, rarely remembered but they still grew.

valk_scot

funkymonkey849 wrote: »

We haven't filled the beds to anywhere near capacity so they should have plenty of space

Space for just now, or space for their final size? For example you'll not get more than one or at most two courgette plants in a bed 1m x 1m.

Sorry to harp on about this but in my experience new gardeners are very prone to underestimating how much space each type of plant needs for optimim growth. It's like there's an expanding zone round every plant which it needs exclusive use of to get enough water and nutrients. Any weeds in this zone steal water and nutrients but so do other crop plants, which is why you need to thin plants fairly ruthlessly. What kind of compost did you use? The home made stuff (good) or the multipurpose (not good.)? I know you used Miracle Grow but that's just a tonic type booster, it doesn't provide much by way of micronutrients.

And raised beds dry out really fast too, compared to low beds. Lots of regular watering required.