Raised Veg Beds Questions

[Ceeci]

Hi All

I'm new to vegetable growing but are keen to get my children interested so we have decided to install some raised beds in our garden. We will have two beds and each bed will be 2.4m x 1.2m and are 30cm high. They are on the way in transit as I'm writing this...

Now, my questions are:

1) The beds will be placed on a lawn area. What do I do with the lawn?

2) What do I fill the beds with? I was thinking of filling at least half with good quality topsoiled (delivered to my door) and the rest with veg compost, compost made myself in my garden and some manure. Not sure if this is correct?

3) Any suggestions as to what to grow in each bed and what goes nicely together? We are thinking of growing lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, patty pan squash, cauliflower, spring onions, raddish, onions/garlic, dwarf french beans, chard...

4) In terms of crop rotation I have little knowledge, but I assume whatever we grow in a bed this year, should not be in the same bed the next?

We will also grow some carrots in a large container, as I know they don't like many types of soil, and tomatoes and cucumber in growbags...what about courgettes, where would they be best off?

Thanks for any advice!

Kind Regards, Cecilie

[Bill who putters]

Cecilie your breaking my heart Song from past

Make a few mistakes.

Bill

[Dan L.]

Turn the lawn so the grass is faced down.

Sounds good to me. Should work as is. Some people add vermiculite to their soil to help retain moisture (not cheap) for raised beds.

Patty Pan Summer Squash takes up allot of space specially the bush varieties. Many winter vine squashes can be grown on a trellis to save space. One bush variety squash plant can take up 1 square meter.

I suggest a salad garden concept for the beds: Lettuces, leaf Lettuces, cherry tomatoes, radishes, celery, peppers, carrots and cucumbers.

In my opinion plant companions is an art. I tend to keep short plants with short plants, like peppers and celery. Tall with tall, like cucumbers next to tomatoes on trellises. Some say carrots and celery are bad companions.

One could switch boxes from year to year for rotation.

I have never used grow bags, so I do not know much about them.

The courgettes, zucchini and squash: In my opinion, one plant is enough. Those plants need room. They can smother smaller plants if planted too close.

Enjoy Life... Dan

[Suzanne D.]

This is what I do, and have been 99% weed-free. Wet the area thoroughly. Lay down a couple of layers of paper (any paper will do; I use old phone books and newspapers), or a single layer of cardboard. Wet that really well too. Sprinkle a little cow poo over it to get the earthworms excited. Then fill it with your dirt and organic stuff. The grass will die and rot under the paper and make the earth richer. You may also want to keep a layer of paper AROUND the beds, covered with decorative mulch, just to avoid grass creeping back in, but I admit I don't do this and rarely have any problems with it.

You don't really have to spend a lot on dirt. If you are doing transplants, you can fill the beds with rough stuff like clippings and dead leaves (it could help to mow them to chop them up a little first), and you'll do fine just setting the plants in there, maybe with a handful of dirt or compost in with them. Even if you want to plant small seeds, you can dig a little trough in the rough stuff and put some commercial dirt or compost in the trough to plant a row with small seeds. In a few years of refilling with rough stuff you'll have some good, crumbly dirt and you'll only have to top it with dead leaves and clippings every year. (It took me about a year to see a few inches of real soil below the mulch.) I placed ads on Craigslist asking people for their bagged dead leaves and got TONS of them!

You can find lists of companion planting suggestions online. I cram my plants in there pretty good. I space them at least half as far as the seed packets say to space them. With raised beds you really can get a lot in there. I'd suggest planting different things is each bed...herbs under tomatoes, onions among lettuce, beans and corn together with a pumpkin or two among them... It confuses the critters!

Right. Also, when you plan to have a high feeder growing next year, be sure to plant a legume the previous year. So if you know where you want to plant corn next year, grow beans there this year. Look up crop rotations online to find some good info on cycling the types of vegetables you grow.

--S.

[gardenlen]

g'day cecilie,

cover the lawn with a good cover of newspaper overlapped, see our presentations for some ideas.

to plant whatever is in season.

On Thu, 25 Feb 2010 11:23:40 -0500, Ceeci wrote: snipped

[LindaMac]

Hi I bought some raised beds too from Harrod Horticulture and their guy there (Martin I think his name was) was very helpful and gave me great tips on soil types, planting, rotating etc depending on what veggies you want to grow...and some common pest problems...deffo worth dropping him an email...you can find his contact details on the Harrod Horticultural website.

Good Luck!

[jimmy]

I love my raised garden, I only wish I did it many years ago..my original garden was about 12 X 20 ft. I made 4 raised beds 4ft wide X 1 foot hi, X 10 feet long....Last year..the 4th in my raised beds I had the finest crop I ever had... here is what I did for cukes..I covered the cuke section with a nylon mesh, fine so the water could get through...had the finest cucumbers ever, even with the cucumber beetles around. Last fall I elected to use a half section for Rhubarb,,this will be a permanent thing, the other side will have herbs and such..

1 section had sweet red peppers, best I ever ate, they were so good it was difficult getting them into pots to cook them....sugar peas,,,soooo sweet and succulent don't forget them a small row will yield much..I ate them off in the afternoon , the next day they were back...and I had to eat more...again soo delicious right off the vine...garlic..plant in the fall and watch it grow all winter...morning glory's up a side fence a beautiful sight in the AM...Throw a sunflower here and there, they grow hi and wont hurt the veggies....romaine lettuce, compact and great for salads...good luck I am sure you will know next year what to do..