Posts Tagged raised beds
2nd bed
2nd bed constructed but hasn’t had the posts banged in yet. We’ve decided to anchor it using just the posts in the middle.
Tomorrow we’ll be putting in the first load of compost into the raised beds, then covering it for next year…
You plank…
As you can see finally we’re underway making the raised beds. It’s taken a lot out of me this morning already due to returning screws to screwfix (I doubt I’d ever use them again) getting the circular saw, getting wood (the wrong stuff), cursing the temporary traffic lights, returning wood, getting more wood, cursing the traffic lights again, then getting lunch.
Nevermind, the boxes are going together quicker than I thought.
Raised Bed Project Week
My boards for the raised beds have just arrived. This week we’re going to be building four beds ready for next year. We’ve taken a week off to do it, so expect quick developments!
Around the plot
Down the lottie today I was bitten to death.
However I did get some pics of the different sections so you can see an overview, and there’s a few more pics of the finished raised bed from yesterday which I also planted a bit in.
We now have cucumbers, another courgette, my applemint (restricted by a bottomless pot which is a long pot with the bottom knocked off – the roots don’t tend to go very deep in mint so it’ll restrict its spread for a bit), a left over tomato, last of my leeklings (that’s a bably leek to you), spagetti squash and some sown from seed brussel sprouts (yuk!!)
Pics in a gallery format below
First pic (top right) is of the strawberry bed which is somewhat infested with couch grass (twich) as well as strawberries!, next is the harlow carr 3×3 imitation and finally another pic of the three sisters bed
2nd row new bed with plants, next houses our mangetout, cabbages, a sorry looking cucumber and some more brussels, last pic on second row is our fruit area.
3rd row is of my other runner bean bed with more fruit, and lollo rosso, next pic has cold frame and asparagus bed, last pic on that row is our beans, additional strawberries and rhubarb bed. I’ll be moving the rhubarb at the end of the season into trenches in front of the blue boxes – it’s unmanageable in the manure beds now.
Final pic is my pond and first line slug defence. There’s often a frog in there now and I’ve noticed a definate reduction in slugs in the locality. Good job mr frog!
Sunday
Just found I have a gallery feature, so if you’re subscribing via RSS, you may be annoyed by this…
One thing I didn’t take a picture of yesterday was the assembling of the scaffolding boards for the raised bed. Basically I left a small part of my plot to my friend to plant in. Two months later, she’s just about broken the surface, but it needed a lot more work, ie double digging.
This meant a six hour digging marathon where I started by emptying about 2ft of soil onto a black pond liner I had lying about. I then dug in soil improver and fresh manure (because that’s what was available) to try and break up the clay (see pics one and three – the clay was coming out in huuuuge lumps and the first pic shows the black soil improver)
The result was the beds volume was raised by the same height as the scaffolding boards – almost a foot. Shows how compressed the clay way, now it’s broken up and I’ve dug in some drainage I hope to grow things other than weeds in it this year.
