Over the Christmas break I started to try to tidy up the bottom of the veg garden.
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| The messy bottom end of the veg garden. |
It's located below my fruit tree nursery and it sits wet for a lot of the year. My plan is to dig a small drain by hand to hopefully move some of the water on and then to raise the growing area. I grew some of my artichokes down here last year in my cheap raised beds and they grew really well so I thought I'd up the scale this time. Lots more pallet collars needed - luckily I get them for free!
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| The very wet area at the bottom. standing water |
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| Raised beds added. Chicken shown for scale... |
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| This should tidy up the bottom and provide some new growing areas. |
So I've now got nine 4ft by 3ft raised beds 16 inches high at the bottom of the garden. I'm planing on using them for plants that don't quite work with my usual rotation so lots of unusal veg like Oca, ground apples and the like, it also lets me tailor the conditions to them a little more as well. I might dedicate one bed to some more flowers and one to things like leeks that we never seem to have enough of, there might be more raised beds going in yet!
I've lined the bottom of the bases with cardboard, now all I've got to do is fill them! It took ten barrowfuls of soil to fill one (I've got a big pile of spare top soil) so I've got a bit more work to do yet, I also need to find some muck to to add in as well.
Hopefully I'll get started on my large raised bed for asparagus in the next couple of weeks as well, but I've also got lots of work on as well so I'm already getting short of time!
Anyone else been increasing their growing area this winter?
Anyone else been increasing their growing area this winter?
Every time I pass Haddock's (my veg garden) I look in the other direction. I know I should be weeding or digging, but it'll have to wait until Spring.
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to keep on top of things this year, but I know it'll soon slip! Last year was such an effort to get things back to normal after the weeds went wild, I'm just trying to find better ways to keep on top!
DeleteI am waiting to get the next lot of raised beds made, the wood is all there but the ground is far to wet to walk on, I want to get a big ericasious bed made as well, and like you a bed sorted for asparagus.
ReplyDeleteI have a ericasious bed for blue berries but my soil is pretty acid anyway as I have blue hydrangeas, but I didn't know that when I built it!
DeleteUsing raised beds is a good idea to grow vegs and flowers at poorly drained land, I think. I had made them in our herb garden and potager.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think this is the best idea for this area, otherwise it just grows weeds!
DeleteWe have three 1 metre x 1 metre raised beds plus a smaller one on legs. I had to make them high even though the soil only comes up to the second plank, as I needed the height to lean on due to an aching back! That is all we have spare room for and does for our summer food (plus leeks).
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing what you can grow in a small space! It does take some keeping on top of though when you want to be intensive. My last garden grew loads in a much smaller area than I've got now - like you I used to concentrate on mainly summer veg.
DeleteMY word that looks good! I like the idea of separate little beds for the "odds and ends" that don't fit too well into a rotation.
ReplyDeleteJust about to start the first seeds off here. the start of a new year is so exciting ( and frankly good to see as we get older!)
I'll still have to raotate these beds as well but it should help me keep organised.
DeleteI need to think about starting seeds. I want some more globe artichokes in and they're pretty much the first things to be sown here.
If you would like a couple of globe artichoke plants I will happily give you some as I am splitting mine this year.
DeleteLooks like I might have a use for my rampant Jerusalem artichokes this year as we are hoping to get a couple of pigs and they love JAs.
You could fill the bottom of the raised beds with stones for drainage that you find when cultivating your veg plot Kev. Are you going to dig a soakaway and make a french drain? I have left drains open in fields and they have worked really well.
ReplyDeleteThere's very few stones in the soil here Dave, in fact hardly any. I remember someone looking around our last garden (that was on an old river bed) and them asking if I'd split gravel everrywhere - the soil had loads of stones in but it was brilliant for growing!
DeleteAs for the drain I'll put a pipe at the bottom with stone on top I think. It only needs to be a few meters long for now to drain to the field, then I need to do a bigger drain for the field!
Yes I plan on making another couple of 2 x 3 m beds as soon as the ground is dry enough to walk on
ReplyDeleteThat'll give you a big growing area! For veg or flowers?
DeleteNothing doing for us until the snow has melted.
ReplyDeleteJane x
Your situation is a bit different to mine! That would be a good excuse to leave it though!
DeleteKevin, those beds will be FULL of food in a few months! Well done - you worked hard and it looks great not to mention practical as the moisture will wick up into the raised beds (which always tend to run drier). Can't wait to see them in full production!
ReplyDeleteI hope so! That's what I was thinking about the beds as well, they should stay a bit wetter. The area does dry out in summer but it's not for long.
DeleteIf Artichokes did well where you said that water stands a good part of the year, (if I understood that right)...then I am worried. I don't have that kind of water here. Are they particularly thirsty plants?
ReplyDeleteOOPS just checked that link.. we are talking two different artichokes .. whew ok good :O)
ReplyDeleteYeah, don't worry, I planted globe artichokes down there when I first planted the garden up and they all rotted and died. So you should be fine.
DeleteOutback Tania in Australia does a lot of vegetables gardening in raised beds like yours.
ReplyDeleteDarn shame you don't live here in the North Georgia mountains. You could teach me your food growing skills and I could help you widen your firearms expertise.
Yeah, I like the look of where you live - not sure my wife would though! The trick is to start small though, that way you won;t get overwhelmed and you can build on the areas you're good at. maybe you could start with a greenhouse to grow tomatoes? That way you could keep the critters out as well.
DeleteI actually have a green house, but I use it as a tool shed. Someone challenged me to try growing some food this past summer after I ventured the opinion that it could not be all that difficult. So I built some beds on the side of the mountain, but torrential rain came and washed them away. It was an embarrassing episode all around.
DeleteI bet your wife would like the mountains. The only draw back is that you have little kids so you would have to put up a strong electric fence and keep fierce dogs to keep the bears from eating them . That's what I did after my daughter ran around the corner of my barn and ran right up on a big boar Ursus. There are also wild hogs. Either of those animals can easily tear down an electric fence which is why you need the dogs.
You should use it to grow some tomatoes next year and see how you do! A few grow bags and a packet of seeds is all you need for that. I remeber you saying it got washed away but how about planting an area surrounded by a low hedge. Once that has established you could then plant crops in the space in the middle. The roots from the hedge would help hold everything there if heavy rain came, giving it some structure.
DeleteNot sure you've sold it to her with the bears! My wife likes people too much. She never wants to live without neighbours close by! Quite unlike me in that way! I'd love it I think. Being able to be in the workshop at midnight making a noise would be a dream come true!
Ahhhh once again nice, visually appealing, wooden raised beds. Looking really good there Kev.
ReplyDeleteWhat's the little raised building in the picture used for if I may ask?
I haven't done a thing for landscaping, opening up new land or more beds this Winter yet since I had to focus on my Mother's retirement mini-house and storage shed. At this point I think the plan is to keep her locked up in there in her old age and wheel her out to sit on the porch on nice afternoons and let her play with the lambs as she smiles and I wipe drool off her chin. It's pretty severely put me behind in garden and pasture grooming this year.
Prolly won't do much outside now until March either so I will just live vicariously through you right now.
They're free thats the best bit! Not sure how long they'll last though. I reckon at least four or five years though but we'll see.
DeleteThe raised building is a chicken coop I got given although I've modified quite a bit. I raised it up as I hate giving rats or mice somewhere else to live. I keep the chickens in with soft fruit for a few months over winter as I tend to think it keeps bugs down and adds a bit of muck.
I'm sure when you get set to it in the spring you'll knock spots off what I've managed to do!
Hey Kev, just a heads up something has happened to my blog. I can only log in on other peoples blogs and make comments my blog isnt there? I am, awaiting assistance that will be here at the weekend.
ReplyDeleteIf you are looking for a blog post, could you do one about the willow you have planted. I am super interested in that and if you have started to burn it yet?
I'll do one on it but it's going to be very disappointing for you! I was aiming to cut some in five years time but it looks like I might have to wait a little longer! Hope you find your blog. I'd be gutted it I lost mine. Shame there isn't a way to back them up really.
DeleteUpdate for you tomorrow. Don't laugh when you see it!
DeleteThose garden beds are looking fantastic! Hope your back held up for the filling of them :)
ReplyDelete