Raised Beds on the Allotment

[Nicos]

Just watch out for the spreading varieties in the raised beds such as courgette,spuds ,tomatoes and french beans (and prob a few others) as they can hang over into the path if planted too near the edge and either get damaged or block the route.Fortunatly we had planted the early spuds next to a path and dug them up in time to keep the route open! May sound obvious but still worth a mention.

[Emma K]

Raised Beds

I love raised beds, They are easy to manage - you only need to dig the bits you are actually going to plant into, once dug, because you do not walk on the beds, the next time you come to dig it's easy - no compaction, you don't waste precious compost or manure, they are easy to cover if needs be with plastic, fleece, netting etc, crop roation is simple with this method. My whole plot will eventually be raised beds - have a look - www.losingtheplot.blogspot.com

Emma K

[nick the grief]

I'm impressed withe chuck house Emma.

ntg

[plot 11 pam]

it depends on how much ground you have to play with. i find a path made just big enough for a wheelbarrow is ok. then the raised beds are 14foot 6inches by 4foot6inches wide and 8 inches high. the first two i made were 6 inches high and bacuase i garden on a steep slope and keep adding soil and manure 6 inches just isn't high enough, so will have to think about replacing them next year. all these raised beds are made of pressure treated wood by the way.

[Emma]

Hi,
I have two allotments and use the raised bed system for both of them. Personally I think the advantages outweigh that of many other methods. The general advice is not to make the bed more than 1.2m in width to enable you to reach the middle. The length is then up to you. Having just set up a new plot with raised beds, my advice to you would be to measure the width of the space you have, then take away the amount for the path ( I usually leave 0.75m). Then divide the remaining in two for the length. For me this works out that I have beds measuring 1.2m x 4m. Also take into account the number of beds you have if you are going to do a rotation e.g I have 24 beds, 6 for each veg grouping. If you then keep all the veg in each group in adjacent beds then when it comes round to swapping next year you don't have to think about what to put where. It's also then possible to work out how many of each plant will fit in your beds. If you keep a note of it all then each year you know how many to sow and plant. I know it all sounds like I've gone mad on the planning, but by doing so it will save so much time in the future and currently with 32 beds + fruit I need it. Good Luck x

[WiZeR]

thanks Emma and welcome to the forums. You can read the trials and tribulations I have been having with my raised beds over on my weblog. In the end I mis-mesured the plot and have ended up with 3mx1m beds and 3.9mx1m beds. Only 4 beds to begin with this year. More to come next year if I am successful.

[sewer rat]

WiZeR
Keep the faith mate - it's not a case of "if " you'll be succesful, but "when".
Rat

[WiZeR]

fingers crossed

[pukka.tukka]

Hi

I had raised beds when I took over my allotment which as first I was going to keep, but then when I starting looking at what we would be planting and setting out rotation plots it was obvious they was not enough space so up they came now I have one large patch.