Help And advice needed with a raised veg bed

[David1949]

Hi everyone i am David and i live in N Ireland i have put a raised bed 4 foot square on
top of my back lawn to grow cabbage plants in and need some advice. First do i dig up the lawn inside the raised bed or do i put down a weed membrane. Next do i fill with a multi purpose compost or do i mix top soil with the compost out of the garden cente r.

[Feral007]

Lots of variations you can use I guess. I use cardboard over grass/lawn - keeps the weeds down and breaksdown over time - and it's free! I use a no dig garden - I put down layers of lucerne hay and compost, hay and compost. The hay breaks down and get's lower over the growing season but then you just do it all over again. The lucerne hay adds nitrogen to the soil too.

[chefgage]

I put together two raised beds a couple of years ago. Built using decking boards. I just built them over the
top of the bare earth (where there used to be grass). Then topped them up with plenty of good stone free
top.soil. Each year (Feb time) they get a good layer of compost put on top.

[David1949]

OK thank,s i will put down cardboard and the mix compost and top soil and see how that goes
i intend do another raised bed sometime soon so any more suggestions i would be grateful as for the straw that would be good but cant get any.

[chris]

There's also the lasagne method, which is laying green waste (veg/fruit peelings, grass clipps, hay etc) with brown (cardboard, thin twggy waste (shredded is better), paper, shredded paper, newspaper, etc) waste, which is essentially the ingreidents for compost. It'll rot down eventually, there's a few threads on it here - Two Sheds has had good success with it I believe. Anyway, you layer it in the bed, top it off with some compost/soil and plant into it then (or cut a plug out, insert compost + plant, and away you go). Much cheaper than buying in compost

[David1949]

Thank Chris thank you looks like most of the thing,s i send for re cycling i can use for the garden but my wife won,t let me use the grass clippings as she insists that the grass clippings will grow through the soil again .

[chris]

They won't, they'll rot down very fast (they get very hot too, which is great for a compost heap as it activates it (i.e. causes it to get rotting down faster!)

[Florence Fennel]

If you've got any garden soil David, I'd suggest you mix a bit in with the compost. Cabbages like to be firmly planted and the compost alone may be a bit soft. Don't be afraid to use grass clippings, as chris says, they rot down quickly and tell your lady wife they definitely don't grow back

[Two_Sheds]

you won't get many cabbages in the space: some of the big savoys are 3-4ft across, each.

Also, brassicas need really firm soil: they'd be better grown in the lawn, which will be compacted, rather than in a loose fluffy compost

[David1949]

i have downloaded a photo onto my album of my new raised bed and the cabbage plants i have put in if you,s would like to look at it i would have put the photo on here but have not found out how to do that yet.

[bearded bloke]

David,for pictures bottom right corner ..

Click .. Go Advanced

Click sixth button from the right in the second row of buttons ... Insert Image

Then follow the instructions

Oh yer,Welcome BTW

EDIT:
Or if you have loaded it to Photobucket then simply left click on the last box of the drop down list that will copy the [img] tag,which you can then paste into your post

[David1949]

OK thank,s bearded bloke ill have a go so here is the raised bed along with the Cabbage i planted to-day it worked

[veggiechicken]

Hello David and welcome. Congratulations on cracking the "How to post a photo" test. It had me foxed for months

[David1949]

Hello David and welcome. Congratulations on cracking the "How to post a photo" test. It had me foxed for months

It,s all down to / bearded bloke / without his help i would still have been in the dark and it could have taken me a few months like you to have figured it out.

[veggiechicken]

Don't praise BB too much or his hat won't fit