Blimey Pa! Your leeks are huge, miles ahead of mine!
Impressed!
Westi
Raised Beds, sometimes I'm baffled
Moderators: KG Steve, Chantal, Tigger, peter
My beds are raised but it is because of constantly adding compost/ manure etc, over 27 years. We didn't set out to raise them it was to improve the soil and keep it good. The idea of laying boards and calling it a raised bed is one I can't understand either Parsnip.
Beryl.
Beryl.
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Pa Snip
- KG Regular
- Posts: 3091
- Joined: Sat Dec 06, 2014 8:20 pm
- Location: Near the big house on the hill Berkshire
Westi wrote:Blimey Pa! Your leeks are huge, miles ahead of mine!
Impressed!
Westi
Huge leeks !! and that's without the use of diuretics
The danger when people start to believe their own publicity is that they often fall off their own ego.
At least travelling under the guise of the Pa Snip Enterprise gives me an excuse for appearing to be on another planet
Hi,
I have a mix on my plot. Most veg goes straight in the ground, however I do have three raised beds.
The first is filled with compost. The purpose of it is to allow me to grow small rows of experimental veg.
The second is in an area of the plot where the soil condition is rubbish. Very clay rich and hard yo dig - and nothing worked. Filled with compost and Produced great veg this year.
The third is new and mini. At the moment it's just a surround / marker around my globe artichokes plant which I grew this year and lived in pots. but I do intend on gradually adding to it once I find out what artichokes like.
Like pa snip, I ve had my best carrots from the raised beds. The Parsnips were not so great but I didn't thin them out properly as I was scared of sap sting and kept forgetting to take my super long gloves with me.
Pawty
I have a mix on my plot. Most veg goes straight in the ground, however I do have three raised beds.
The first is filled with compost. The purpose of it is to allow me to grow small rows of experimental veg.
The second is in an area of the plot where the soil condition is rubbish. Very clay rich and hard yo dig - and nothing worked. Filled with compost and Produced great veg this year.
The third is new and mini. At the moment it's just a surround / marker around my globe artichokes plant which I grew this year and lived in pots. but I do intend on gradually adding to it once I find out what artichokes like.
Like pa snip, I ve had my best carrots from the raised beds. The Parsnips were not so great but I didn't thin them out properly as I was scared of sap sting and kept forgetting to take my super long gloves with me.
Pawty
I think you are right Pa Snip in that lots of newcomers to allotment gardening don't quite understand the purpose(s) of a raised bed. In your picture I suppose you could say that the only real purpose is to make the place look neater and maybe help with planning (I always find raised beds easier to plot on a piece of paper and to try and make sense out of when thinking about crop rotation). I am very happy to admit that I still struggle a bit to get my head around rotation - maybe because I'm naturally disorganised!
However, I still think it may be worthwhile making beds as they have in your picture even if you don't have the soil to fill them. Good, weed free topsoil can be very expensive and I was amazed at how quickly my relatively shallow raised beds filled up after 4-5 years of adding manure and garden compost, spare turves etc. In fact I soon had to add another layer on top of the existing raised bed so I could cultivate without it all spilling out!
The most productive raised beds I ever saw however didn't have any edging at all, much like Peter describes except this guy just had soil paths (bit messy in a wet season!)
However, I still think it may be worthwhile making beds as they have in your picture even if you don't have the soil to fill them. Good, weed free topsoil can be very expensive and I was amazed at how quickly my relatively shallow raised beds filled up after 4-5 years of adding manure and garden compost, spare turves etc. In fact I soon had to add another layer on top of the existing raised bed so I could cultivate without it all spilling out!
The most productive raised beds I ever saw however didn't have any edging at all, much like Peter describes except this guy just had soil paths (bit messy in a wet season!)
Steve Ott
Kitchen Garden Editor
Kitchen Garden Editor