Raised beds - help?

Larumbelle

Lotus-eater wrote: »

silvercharming, have you grown sprouts in a raised bed, did it turn out ok and what type were they?

I have yes, two types. Falstaff (purple ones) which did okay, some were blown though, and green ones that we call Victory Sprouts 'cos they were given to me by a chap at the lotty association who swears blind he's been saving the seed from them since he was a lad at the end of the war!!!! So no idea what they're supposed to be, the chances are they've evolved into their own type by now anyway. They're quite short plants and start cropping early, if that's any help.

You have to ignore all the usual raised bed advice and stomp it down pretty tight, add more soil if you have to, otherwise the sprouts (and cabbages, I find) don't form heads. So usually after I've grown them I put some of the soil in dustbins for my spuds and mix in some nice new compost.

Lotus-eater

silvercharming wrote: »

I have yes, two types. Falstaff (purple ones) which did okay, some were blown though, and green ones that we call Victory Sprouts 'cos they were given to me by a chap at the lotty association who swears blind he's been saving the seed from them since he was a lad at the end of the war!!!! So no idea what they're supposed to be, the chances are they've evolved into their own type by now anyway. They're quite short plants and start cropping early, if that's any help.

You have to ignore all the usual raised bed advice and stomp it down pretty tight, add more soil if you have to, otherwise the sprouts (and cabbages, I find) don't form heads. So usually after I've grown them I put some of the soil in dustbins for my spuds and mix in some nice new compost.

Wow, love the local bit with the Victory sprouts.
Re the stomping down on the soil, thats what I was worried about. One of the things I do in my beds is very little digging, I try to keep the soil as uncompacted as possible. It seems stupid to really compact it down every four years.
Atm I am building my beds bit by bit and the new piece of ground is being cleared and used as the brassica bed for the year. But after this year I will have run out of new ground

Larumbelle

I don't grow spuds in my beds, I only grow them in dustbins - I find it way easier and yields higher - so my four year rotation is roughly as follows: sweetcorns/pumpkins; 'everything else'; legumes; brassicas. Then after brassicas I put the media from the brassica beds into the dustbins, then make a new mix. I agree that that's far from perfect, but we're in a rented house and we're only allowed to plant in the existing raised beds, so it's a bit of making do. When it comes time to change the soil, I life the entire structure of the raised bed then scoop the soil right into the bins. It's not even an afternoon's work, so it doesn't bother me too much!

We have all kinds of daft names for our scrounged seeds. We have quite a few we call "victory" and "granddad" varieties :rotfl: although for the most part this will only be our second growing year for them.

another

hi i need to make a raised bed so i can grow veg. however i want it curvey so it fits outside my round lawn. i was thinking stakes with corrigated iron attached all the way round so it fits to the shape i want. does anyone have any other ideas.

arkonite_babe

We have a thread similar to this already, I'll add your query to it so all the replies are together. Posts are listed in date order so you'll need to read from the beginning to catch up

Ivyleaf_2

Thanks for the suggestions all! The beds would have to go down on brick as that's all we have. But I have been religiously composting everything rottable for two years so shouldn't be too hard to fill a couple of smaller raised beds.

I see what you mean about beds on a solid surface being basically a big pot but I think the problem last time was that the plant pots I was using just weren't big enough to keep the soil damp all day and to let the roots spread to their heart's content- I didn't want to go mad and actually buy some huge pots!

nozzy6

sorry to gatecrash the thread, could you tell me if 15cm is deep enough for a raised bed? I'm thinking of getting one of these

http://www.linkabord.co.uk/shop/product_details.asp?pid=37

it will be on grass but I can't really dig the ground underneath it (in a communal garden) or do you reckon I'd be better off getting 2 smaller double height ones?

I was hoping this year I could start helping answer more questions rather than asking them, not getting off to a good start! :rolleyes:

thanks all

Lotus-eater

15cm is fine, you could go for cheaper wooden sides if you like, but these linkaboards will last alot longer and not bad if you only want a couple of small beds.

What do you mean you can't dig the grass underneath what do you think is going to happen to it if you dump a load of compost and manure on top of it. Clue, it dies.
You should really dig it anyway to loosen up the soil.

nozzy6

Lotus-eater wrote: »

What do you mean you can't dig the grass underneath what do you think is going to happen to it if you dump a load of compost and manure on top of it. Clue, it dies.
You should really dig it anyway to loosen up the soil.

Lol I know you're right, I'm just a bit paranoid about the management people rocking up when I'm out there with a garden fork attacking the grass! As they said last year that I couldn't do a veg plot, but I'm kind of ignoring that and just going for it. Which is why I'm going for the slightly more expensive plastic bed - looks a bit smarter than anything I could knock up out of old timber. I guess its highly unlikely they'll turn up at that precise moment though isn't it!

Thanks for the advice, though I'm to order it now!

Lotus-eater

Do they have any flower beds in your garden? You could consider gorilla gardening, where you just plant the odd thing here and there in existing flower beds.