Gardening - Raised Beds

Now that the sun is finally emerging from behind winter’s clouds, the sap starts to rise, the birds start to nest and so the time to work on trees comes to rest for a while. Whilst the season of hedge cutting, lawn mowing and fencing approaches, I also get a chance to grow vegetables in my garden.

This year we decided to expand. We needed a new raised bed. So an afternoon in the sun beckoned.

Materials:
Spade
Fork
Two 3 metre gravel boards
Four feet of two by two
Screws
Compost

Prepare the ground:
You need to make sure that the ground is cleared of all bulbs and weeds and ensure that what will grow will be what I want to grow there. So after an intensive digging and turning session the ground was ready.

Prepare the materials:
Next I cut one metre off each of my gravel boards and cut my two by two down in to four lengths of about a foot each.

Erect the bed:
Screw two bits of two by two to each end of one of the longer bits of gravel board
Screw the two shorter pieces on each end trying to ensure they are both at ninety degrees to the longer piece
On the opposite ends of the short bits, screw on the last two bits of two by two
Join the final 2m length of gravel board to complete to rectangle.
Dig four holes in the ground where the corners will go
Place the bed in position
Back fill the holes at each corner and stamp it down to reduce any movement

Fill the bed:
A quick pop to the garden centre for some compost – I prefer the organic, peat free vegetable compost at around £6 per bag – about three filled the bed up and the bed was ready to sow – a job for next weekend. A few pea sticks and short bits of bamboo strategically placed around the edges to put off the cats from accessing it and job done.

The whole thing probably took no more than three hours and cost around about forty pounds. I plan to use this bed for carrots this year.

I will sow two rows of seeds every couple of weeks. The rows are 15cm apart and 1cm deep. I sparingly sowed the seeds (about one every cm), covered them up and watered them well. Once the seedlings start to show, thin them out further. With my 2m long bed I should get 10 rows of carrots. This will hopefully ensure we are well stocked with delicious fresh carrots for the summer.

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