Raised beds.

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Hi, I am a beginner gardener and want to grow some vegetables.I have access to a quarter or half acre but only want to start small.Am I better to grow them in timber raised beds or as normal.Does growing them in raised beds have any advantages like avoiding slugs etc.? Many thanks.

The Sweeper

Advantages of raised beds:

• Far less digging. You're building up on the soil you have, not trying to cultivate hard earth.
  
• Easier weeding - the beds are up off the ground usually by 18 inches, so the action of bending over to weed is less pronounced.
  
• Greater control over the make-up of the soil in the bed. This is particularly useful if you go into the science of vegetable gardening. For instance, carrots do best in a soil with some sand, no stones and aged manure - too much fresh manure or soil that is too rich makes the carrot split. By contrast, green leafy veg is nitrogen-mad, so the more rich compost you mix through the soil, the better the crop. Herbs thrive best in miserable soil with a touch of lime, so you may be best off mixing garden soil with sand and lime to plant them, even with a touch of moss peat (the kind with no fertiliser) or coconut coir. Raised beds makes it much easier to cultivate different soil types in a small area.
  
• Appearance. Raised beds, well made and well kept, can look very pretty indeed.
  
• Layered materials. You can use the lasagne layer method on raised beds, creating a sort of compost heap under six inches of topsoil. This is cheaper than filling the raised bed with garden soil as it makes up much of the depth, and the composting process will attract lots of worms, and generate heat which can help germination of seeds.

Disadvantages of raised beds

• Expense. If you go nuts first out, and spend a fortune on treated pine planks and posts, then bark mulch or pavers to go between the beds - or perhaps gravel? - and if you build deep beds, even the soil that goes in them starts to become expensive. It depends if you're all about the function, or all about the look. Remember you can use anything to hold in the edges of a mounded lasagne bed - you can even use nothing, just heap it all up there and it'll stand up.
  
• Design - plan your beds carefully within your garden layout. A well laid out garden adds to the value of your house. A higgledy piggledy mess of semi-permanent features like raised beds can be offputting to a buyer, because it'll be a lot of work to get rid of them.
  
• Feast or famine - Plan your yield. Learn to plant things in waves across the planting season - in other words if there's an eight week window for planting, then plant every two or three weeks or else your crop will be all ready at once and your friends will be sick of the sight of courgettes.

In terms of pest control, raised beds can host pests just as easily as ground level beds - and sometimes raised beds can turn into slug hotels, depending what you've used for the edges. (Nigel Slater used box hedges for his raised beds because they looked pretty, but now agrees that he's essentially provided accommodation for the slugs that come out at night, get drunk from his beer traps and then go on binge eating rampage around his vegetables before crawling back to the hedges to sleep it off.)

Whatever you do, don't spend a single cent until you have properly assessed your own ability. The biggest influence over a garden is the ability, time and energy of the gardener. There's no point going out and buying the timber and tools for four raised beds, only to discover that your dexterity, energy and interest will extend as far as a single square metre. This is an important factor for beginner gardeners - you forget that digging and weeding are hard work, and there is weekly upkeep on any garden, with weeding, watering, feeding and tying, pruning and dead heading... You just don't want to lay out cash you can't afford for a return in vegetables that won't happen.

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Wow! Awesome post.Just what I was looking for.
Many thanks.

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I have a few more questions.I'm finding questions lead to more questions!
Anyway, if anyone has the time to awnser even one or two , I would be most greatful.

When is the best time to plant carrots?If I use 10 big or 20 small carrots a week , how many should I plant? Are they hard to grow?

Is kale hard to grow? When is the best time to plant it?Am I likely to run into problems with slugs,catterpillers etc?
Same with cabbage..

Also, I use lots of lettuce and tomatoes and some cucumbers. Do these all have to be grown in a greenhouse or tunnel and can you still get slugs inside?

Also, forgive my naiviety...but I have to make drills...add some natural fertilizer if possible...make little holes and plant the seeds. Water, weed...
and is that it? Do most people use some form of pesticides? I want to do it organically if possible but saw Shane mcGowans girlfriend on the documentary about growing your own...come to a garden that was covered in catterpillers. Is this likely to happen?Can you protect with nets etc?

Many thanks.

The Sweeper

I'll let people with more experience of growing veg in the Irish climate give you their tips and hints about when to plant and where to plant to achieve success.

There are a number of things to consider with vegetables. I've become a convert to sowing outside and allowing them to germinate where they'll grow, as opposed to starting seedlings in a controlled indoor environment and trying to transplant them out. Takes longer for them to germinate in situ, but the plants that come up are stronger and won't be disturbed.

Sow lightly - the seeds we buy these days, unless it's an old, already opened packet, or you've tried collecting your own from a previous crop - have very high germination rates. If you drop 10 seeds into an inch of drill, 10 plants can easily sprout and that means you have to thin out.

Thinning out - your vegetables need space to mature, so you will have to thin out some of the seedlings. The seed packet will have instructions on when to thin out. You just pick the strongest out of a clump, leaving it and pulling the rest. Sometimes, depending what stage I'm thinning out at, I'll transplant the best of the thinned seedlings into another spot. Some will take, some won't.

If you've planted in good, rich soil, you won't need to fertilise immediately. For instance, some plants will set more flowers if they aren't fertilised, and then you fertilise AFTER the flowers have set fruit, to encourage the growth of rich fruit.

Water as per instructions. Weed regularly. Feed as per instructions. Pinch off ends to create bushier plants where appropriate. Stake, tie, and support where needed. Harvest with great excitement and eat happily.

Read up about rotating vegetables (e.g. leafy greens love nitrogen, and legumes - peas and beans - are nitrogen fixers - they take nitrogen out of the air and fix it into the soil - so you plant peas in a bed first, and then follow that planting with cabbages) and about companion planting, and sacrifical plants.

Companion planting is where you plant something that will be of use to your crop plant. Some examples - bright flowers attract insects that will help germinate plants that may not have attracted as many insects with their own flowers. Some plants will put off pests, being too bitter or exuding unpleasant smells or flavours, so they can 'guard' your vegetables when planted around. There are other tactics - planting lettuces around your cabbages to confuse cabbage attacking insects, or planting nasturtiums as a sacrifical crop so the beasties will attack them and leave the greens.

Also, nothing beats pest control like going out with a set of gloves and picking off the caterpillars, or the slugs, or the snails. Squash them, or flush them down the loo, or feed them to the birds. Same with greenfly - go out and wipe them off the plants by hand, squashing as you go. Bit tedious, but 100% effective, and then you can spray something organically plant-friendly like soap and white oil AFTER to prevent a return.

You can also protect with nets to a certain degree, but growing your own and tending your garden is a big battle against mother nature. The best way to win it - in my own view - is to let her fight herself - I have a garden full of herbs (natures own pest control) and other insect tempting and repelling plants - lavander, rosemary, marigolds, thyme. They make a big difference.

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Thank you. It sounds like I've my work cut out! I guess one of the best ways to learn is by experience to I'll just aim to learn as I go. Much appreciated..

Planet X

4 raised beds I put in last year,

looksee

'is that it?'
Well yes, but its not just weeding once, or watering when you remember - in dry weather anyway. And then there's the bugs and slugs and caterpillars. And next door's cat.
Go for it though, and be prepared to read up advice and info from books or the net. The Hessayon 'Expert' books are great, simple and clear.
Leeks are good to grow, they sit there peacefully waiting till you are ready to harvest them in the middle of the winter, and not much attacks them.
Carrots are easy but don't fertilize the soil or they will divide their roots. Carrot fly is the worst problem, put scallions between the rows to fool the fly, handle the tops carefully so you don't release the scent and dispose of them away from the growing carrots.
Onions are easy, especially from sets. Grow mixed salad greens in a big pot, a pinch of seed every couple of weeks or so. Broccoli is also easy but I get fed up picking out the caterpilars which disguise themselves very well, also in cauliflower. They don't seem to like kale so much, nor do the birds which love cabbage.
Runner beans are one of the easiest, grow them up a wigwam of 6' garden canes, but you have to keep picking them or they stop fruiting.
Marrows/courgettes are easy too, but they take up a lot of space. You may need to lift the fruit off the ground away from slugs. Maybe just onto sand.
New potatoes mmmmmm, don't bother with main crop, its not worth it in a small garden.
Blackcurrent and gooseberry are no trouble if you want to make pies or jam, and raspberries and strawberries are not difficult but you have to get to them before the birds.

The Sweeper

Planet X, if you don't mind me asking, could you give us some idea of the financial outlay that went into your four raised garden beds (e.g. timber, bark mulch, soil, netting etc.)?

I've seen those photos before, it's a very neat job, looks good.

Dr Galen

as I've mentioned today in another thread, I'm going for a few proper raised beds this year.

2 reasons really. I like to build stuff, and like the look that it gives, and secondly I'm looking for the some of the lower maintenance that it will provide. Sure, you have to be vigilant against slugs and caterpillars but I've found the chore of weeding and water to be lessened by having at least some raised beds on the go.

Hopefully we'll get a nicer summer here this year, would be fantastic after the last few washouts, but as has been mentioned, if you down the raised route it can bring its own problems. I'm putting together a little drip irrigation project that will hopefully stave that off. If I get it off the ground I'll post the details of what I did etc.

Planet X

The Sweeper wrote: »

Planet X, if you don't mind me asking, could you give us some idea of the financial outlay that went into your four raised garden beds (e.g. timber, bark mulch, soil, netting etc.)?

I've seen those photos before, it's a very neat job, looks good.

Cheers.

Price......mmmmmm....not too sure, cannot remember. 16' X 6" X 2" lenghts of treated timber from Abwoods down in Wicklow, off the N11. 4 planks per bed. 8' X 4', the front two but the back two are bigger. Phone Abwoods for a quote cos I don't know off hand. Delivered for about E20. Not too bad.


http://www.tullynurseries.ie/ Soil from Tully Nurseries, delivered by the tonne. Free delivery at the moment I think. I've got to get another 3 tonnes. Two more beds put in. Otherwise in Spring it's about E45 delivery to Dublin. Each 8' X 4' bed will take 1 tonne. This will settle ALOT in the first year.

Netting etc cheap but necessary!!!


Initial outlaw is expensive but it will outlast me!

I bought a cordless screwdriver, essential, for about E60 or something.

The Sweeper

Thanks - how are you fixing the netting over the beds? E.g. are they bamboo canes or some plumbing fixture that you're making the hoops out of, and what's holding them on the inside of the beds?

What sort of netting is it?

Do you use wire ties to hold the netting on the hoops, or something else?

I'm asking because while I'm sure I can recreate the effect with a quick trawl through my garden centre, I'm also interested in what you used specifically.

Have you any experience with frost - does the netting aid in frost protection, stopping the worst of it burning the plants?

Planet X

The 'bamboos" are plumbing tubing. Got them in Woodies. Attached to the inside of the beds with, again from the plumbing section, a type of bracket.

Netting from Woodies....................you can also cover it with polythene, buy a big roll of the stuff.

lucylu

Nice Job Planet X...


Something to think about. Crop rototion
Last year we built 2 5ft x 30 ft raised beds and then left the remainding ground level to sow our potatoes 8 * 30ft rows.
This year we have to move the raised beds for crop rotation and have the issue of earth moving.

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some interesting urban gardens especially the second link!
http://urbanhomestead.org/journal/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDfx60AJRiM