Planting raised beds

Hi all
as we are about to embark on our first plot journey, (me,wife and son) growing organic food, is there a plan somewhere showing how to plan out what you should plant and where.
Although my background is horticulture, vegetables is not part of it, and i am longing for the day we walk onto the plot and harvest our own home grown food. Just want to keep it as a few root veg as we dont have the room for brassica's.
My forum name is also my personal blog name too, would love people to check out our progress so far and let us know what they think, i am always ready for good advice.
Thank you..
steve

 

@Stevebeard50.blog, Hi Steve someone will answer you better regarding organic foods, as a lot of members do their own things

 

Hi Steve,

Had a look at your blog, I'm not a fan of thumbnail pictures, if your going to post photos..make them big enough to be seen. Also you will get a much better response here if you post those enlarged photos here on a topic too. I'm not a fan also of going off in different directions on the web to view things I came to a forum to take part in, just my preference.

Any reason why in such a large space you have put 3 small raised beds in, they could have been put closer together, made larger or more added?

Go ahead and start a project topic here, post some decent sized photos and watch the help flood in...and welcome to GC too..

Steve...

 

@Steve R has put it in a nutshell

 

I have found that raised beds need to be fairly narrow - to allow them to be tended without stepping into or stretching over them.

Stevebeard50 - have you dug over the soil below each raised bed - if not this may be a good idea - I'm thinking in terms of digging out any soil compaction and potentially avoiding a hard border between soil types.

If memory serves me, the trick is to rotate crops to prevent exhausting the soil nitrogen (the element which promotes leaf growth). I'm afraid that's as far as I can help - I'm more a flower person .

 

Hi Clanless
I don’t intend to dig as the beds are only 5 foot wide and 10 foot long, i didnt dig over the base of them as it is heavy clay, hence the raised beds. I am using an organic compost and organic food to keep them alive and well, just wondered if there was a set plan for how to plant in order to maximise the space.

 

Haven't gone off elsewhere to look at blog, but I'm no fan of parallel raised beds close together, did that once and got fed up with constantly getting my knees/feet wedged between the edging boards, and the alternative of kneeling parallel to the bed and twisting through 90 degrees to work them was a PITA.

I need a full 3'2" between edging boards to avoid my knees pressing against the bed I'm working on, and prevent my boots jamming into an edging board behind me - NB feet will tilt back whilst kneeling, and even further when standing up.

My (single) raised beds are now separated by wide, open growing areas, with the exception of those which don't require much work at ground level, for example loganberry structures and raspberry beds.

 

hi scrungee
that sounds like a plan, there is a good gap between mine as we have the grass cut around them in order to keep the place tidy. Of the fruit trees we have, they are potted in large pots so we can move them around should the need arise, but i would like to plant the raspberry, blackberry and gooseberry in longer troughs so i can thread string to hold them up, i am going to start a topic in the edibles section shortly.

 

@Stevebeard50.blog
Glad your getting sound advice from members who know what they're doing and most likely been at it for years
I hope you get your organic plants established

 

I have the same problem here - heavy clay soil - and installed raised flower beds to alleviate the problem.

Would recommend at least breaking into the surface of the clay soil - this will help drainage enormously .

In terms of what to plant - it will be a leaf crop one year (which will deplete the nitrogen in the soil) and a root crop the next so that the nitrogen has a chance to recover.

The other thing you can do is plant a 'green manure' crop - eg field beans - which will grow down into and break up the clay - and which you dig into the bed as they are flowering to improve the soil and add nitrogen.

Which crops to plant? I would choose a crop which is not commonly available in the shops.

It's nigh impossible to suggest a plan for the layout - which will maximise yield - it all depends on the crops that you want to grow .