Stopping by to say hello

[vivienz]

Welcome back. Some of us old hands are still alive and kicking. Especially OH.

Drat, he's worked the straps free again!

Tee hee! You naughty thing, Peter!

Johnboy - lovely to hear from you. Our area is mainly pasture for dairy herds, but our farmer neighbour is a lovely chap who seems to know everything about everyone so I'll have a word and see if there's anything going like this. There will be plenty of diggers and JCBs on the site in due course, anyway, once things get going with the new house. Being the impatient devil that I am, though, I see no reason why my f&v ambitions should be held back too much. OH and I have just finished planting 400 native hedge shrubs around the perimeter and this morning I suggested to him that constructing a couple of raised beds would be just the thing to keep him out of mischief now. A look speaks a thousand words and this one indicated I may not have chosen the best time to mention this, but he did offer!

[oldherbaceous]

3.30 in the morning, probably wasn't the best time to have asked, Vivien....

[Stephen]

I would agree about not needing raised beds. Being in cattle country, there should be no shortage of manure, so get several trailer-loads in and let it compost down, then grow in that.
I went on a Charles Dowding day and he grows straight into compost. It may be called "no dig" but the tite is somewhat misleading because it implies "no hard physical work" and there will be lots of shoveling and barrowing! I took his approach with a pinch of salt but his crops did look great and ate very well.