the garden is almost ready.

So after I finished my second raised bed, I thought I'd take a quick snap and share with you all what I have been up to the past few weeks with regards to my ambition to grow my own veg!

In the pic you can see 2 raised beds 8 x 4ft my soil was clay based soil so I've mixed in some more top soil and a couple of bags of miricle grow compost, I've also bought some blood fish and bone but wasn't too sure weather to mix it in as the compost has feed in it so I haven't added it yet, next week ill be buy some bark to go around my beds just so I can keep the wife happy by not standing in mud and walking it up and down the garden path,

The bed at the bottom had some potatoes in, my peas have started to sprout, so in a couple of weeks ill have them planted in the garden.

Well I hope you like what I hae done bare in mind I'm a toatal novice so if you think I could have done something else please feel free to point it out!

 

Oooops 2 pics have come up

 

Looking good!!

 

Looking good dandanuk. Looks like there a good size aswell.

Rusty

 

Spot the difference?

 

Thanks guys, gives me a little more confidence now knowing you guys approve of the direction I'm going in with the garden, what we need now is things growing

 

My 8x4 beds were made from decking planks; I had 6 beds. The first year, I was very happy with them. The following year (last year, actually), I decided that I would like them higher and persuaded Mr Mum to put one bed on top of another - this reduced my beds from 6 to 3 but gave me the additional height I was looking for. Good job too because this Autumn/Winter waterlogging would have ruined the original 6, whereas, now having 3 doubled up was a God send!

 

So would you recommend mine been higher? I turned over all the original soil underneath so any roots can travel further down if they need to.

 

Not especially
Your garden doesn't look like it is at the mercy of waterlogging (which was one of the reasons I needed mine to be higher).

I think your set up looks fab

 

Yeah not much chance of waterlogging, my beds are on a slight slope in anycase so water would run down to my drains, thanks again for the comments

 

Nice one dandanuk

 

Sorted

 

Perfect width IME

I think the general advice is to work fertilizer into the surface (e.g. with abhoe) a couple of weeks before sowing / planting so that it is available to the plants,a nd evenly distributed through the bed (which putting, say, a handful around each plant doesn't achieve). Putting it down too soon means some/much of the goodness may have been washed away before the plants get the chance to use it ...

I don't think the fertilizer in the compost will count for much in a whole bed, maybe apply the BF&B at a slightly lower rate to compensate.

Yes, you will be glad you did that. I would put some membrane down first, otherwise weeds will come through and be a nuisance. You need membrane for paths, not the woven mulching fabric. (It lets water through, but is "solid" in other respects)

Use bark with large pieces in it - don't sue gravel it will pick up on your boots in foul weather, same with small sized bark.

I'm on heavy clay, and the area is flat (so heavy rainfall doesn't run away easily). My beds are only raised a few inches and I find that is enough. I definitely cannot get on them early in the season - when it is as wet as this past N months has been - but they drain fairly freely in all other respects. Taller beds means a lot more soil / compost / etc to fill them with ... a 1 tonne "builder's bag" of soil (£50 - £100 ?) will raise an 8' x 4' bed by about a foot

 

Nice job Dan Is the fencing to keep dogs off ?

 

Yes mate, the fence is to keep the dog out, he's a bugger for mud and loves nothing more than to run, jump and roll about in it then run in the house... Haha.

Thanks Kirsten, very informative as usual, thanks.