Question

Hi, this is my first time posting so please be gentle..

I am building 2 raised beds on the concrete driveway at the side of my house to grow veg in next year, I have the scaffold boards ready and waiting, my plans was:

-drill some drainage holes in the concrete

-put down a layer of weed control fabric as we have horsetail at the back of the garden and I want to try and keep it out of my veg patch

-Build the raised beds and stain the outside to make them look nicer

-fill with a mixture of topsoil and multi purpose compost as I got a bit giddy and bought 10 x 70l bags of which i have 4 and a half left :o

-then hopefully grow, grow, grow!!:D:D

My plan for next year is potatoes in one bed and an assortment of other veg in the other - beans, broccoli, cucumber, onion and maybe some salad leaves, my tomatoes will be in pots again and my strawberries in hanging baskets which I hope will be better than they were this year as I have only had 1 flippin fruit! I'll also do potatoes in bags again as these were surprisingly easy and gave good results! (we eat loads of spuds in our house!!) Herbs will also stay in pots dotted around here there and everywhere!

so now for the questions.....

would it be beneficial to add some worms to my raised beds? (just ones from under some paving slabs as I have HUNDREDS!!

I was thinking of adding the last bits of bonemeal I have too will this be ok?

what about the water holding crystals I also have some of these left over after doing my pots and baskets can I chuck this in too?

Can I do Carrots in the same bed as my potatoes? (half and half?) with sand mixed in the soil for the carrots?

I am trying to talk my OH into letting me have another bed so i can do some pumpkins ready for Halloween (my best friend is American and really misses the whole carving home grown pumpkins! so I thought I'd treat her!) also pumpkin bread is soooo nice

Thanks in advance for all the amazing advice and replies I hope to receive to my somewhat naive questions! I am loving gardening and am so proud of the little bits of veg I have managed this year - it's so rewarding eating something you have grown yourself!!!

Kath xx

 

Hi Kath & welcome to the forum.

Worms always good, bonemeal good, don't know about the crystals, shouldn't hurt.

If you're not growing till next year you could think about a cover crop like mustard to stop the rain leaching the nutrient out of the soil. sow in the autumn, it'll give cover over winter ( plus you could eat the leaves) Or cover plot with old carpet.

 

The most important thing is the depth of the beds. I think, if you are growing spuds and other rootcrops, they need to be AT LEAST 18" ( 15 cm ).:gnthb:

 

Not being rude Dai, but 18" is 45cm roughly :thumb:

Very good point though, I hadn't considered the depth

 

I am happy to be corrected, I`m a feet and inches man personally.:lollol:

 

Glad there's no worries there I grew up on the cusp, started off in imperial, then metric came in. To be honest, not many of us use centimetres, its either mm or metres, normally I would say 450 mill

 

If you're putting your raised bed on concrete, I'd say drainage and fertility etc will be a massive problem, even if you drill holes in it.

Dig it all up if you can. Otherwise, make it a very, very deep bed. Lots of mm, inches, cm or furlongs, whichever you choose.

 

Hi

Thanks for the welcome and the advice

The driveway is slightly sloping so I was hoping the rain water would run off away from the bed and any excess I was hoping would drain through the holes I drill. I would love to dig up the driveway but I think my husband would have something to say about that!!!

The raised beds are going to be 18" (I'm an inches girl too :D!!) high, so probably around 17" of soil/compost, I did potatoes in bags this year filling up as they pushed through the top of the compost that was until i went on holiday for a fortnight and they took over the garden s00k I got a very reasonable amount of spuds out of each bag and there was only 15" or so of compost.

I have also just put my name down for an allotment i'm SOOOOO excited, 6 to 12 month waiting list but hey ho!!! feel free to pass on any advice on what I should be doing as I am new to all this (my first year growing veg!) I planted some lettuce at the weekend with the help of my 3 year old - she loves getting dirty in the garden although has a tendency to dig up my favourite flowers telling me they are weeds!!!!

Thanks again xx

 

Hi there.

I'm no expert, but I have four BIG raised beds. One of them is on concrete and has been fine. If you are worried about drainage then put a couple of inches of pebbles in the bottom before you fill them with your soil mix