Kitchen Garden Forum

Westi wrote:Wow Pa!

That is impressive in a day! You must be back on form & over those nasty lurgies that slowed you down with the rotavator! I was down today & starting to gain control but never will be as pristine as your plot.

Just sheer bloody determination Westi, or bloody mindedness..
Don't be fooled by photographer positions and camera angles, its far from pristine in places

What would have been impressive, which I was hoping to achieve, would have been to have filled it with soil as well.

It's now 11pm and I can guarantee I am in for a good dose of cramp tonight. Two fingers and the palm of my right hand kept cramping up earlier tonight when I was trying to hold a knife at dinner time

sorry about the cramp Pa Snip...I get it in my calves if I've worked too hard, agony at night.
However, the raised bed looks great, and it is so much easier to work them. I wish we had more, we only have 2, one for the new strawberry bed, and one for salads.

Another cramp victim here occasionally but I find that doing a few gentle calf stretching exercises just before getting into bed after a heavy gardening day helps to reduce this problem. Also helps to have a small drink of water before bedtime to avoid any dehydration. This of course ensures you will get some more gentle exercise in the night visiting the bathroom but that's probably the lesser of the two evils

I'm waiting for Pa to invent the "adjustable raised bed" with a flexible moving base and movable support bars underneath it on which it rests so that you can decide the depth of the bed and amount of soil which needs to be added, depending on what you're growing. Thus if you want to grow long prize parsnips you insert the base lower down and need more soil. If yiu're growing strawberries or a salad crop you only need to fill it with a little soil bu t everything is still near the surface within easy reach.

It does mean if course that you would probably have to dispense with a plastic inner lining though as I can't figure out how you would prevent soil slipping between the various levels.

How about four posts with hooks in at various heights, then you hook a builders bag on the hooks holding it at whatever depth you want it and fill it accordingly?

Pa Snip wrote:
The raised bed will take just under 3cu mt to fill I reckon.

I reckoned wrong, took approx. 4cu mt. to fill

Having lined the sides and floor with black polythene numerous drainage holes were made in the liner base with a fork for drainage.

A layer of stones was then put in to cover the base, to aid that drainage.


A layer of weed cover membrane we then put over the stones, primarily to stop then rising


Then a good layer of sharp sand .


Followed by filling with Top Soil

Fill with topsoil


And finally (for the time being) place cold frames on top

Looks good all ready for the carrots

Pa, I'm totally amazed at your construction and hard work. That is a really professional construction with the protective covers in place. I reckon you should be able to grow just about anything in there now.
And it has the added advantage that nobody is going to be able to steal it easily and carry it away !! I bet your fellow allotmenteers can't wait to see what you will be constructing next.

Thanks for the comment Primrose.
Not planning anymore construction at present, making the bed was easy (no sheets or blankets, and too early for apple pie) compared to shifting approximately 4cu mt to fill it.

robo wrote:Looks good all ready for the carrots

and parsnips

Very impressive Pa. My son has always done things on a much larger scale than anyone else envisages. His grandad asked him to bring half a dozen frogs for the pond so he brought a bucket full, then when he was grown up he asked if he could put a garage in a corner of the garden - it is the size of a bungalow, and I asked if he'd dig a hole for me to make a pond and I came home to a 16 ft x 21 ft crater 4 ft deep with the accompanying mountain of clay and stones.

At least your raised bed is just what you want and looks very useful.

Impressive set up Pa

most impressive! is that your own topsoil moved from elsewhere, or new delivered? looks lovely!

You must have Viking blood in you pa snip if it had a point at one end you could be in France in a couple of days