Paths versus beds on allotments

[greengas]

Greengas - try going for beds with no raised bits first, then you can change your mind with no additional work.

When you say no raised bits what do you mean? Sorry to come across stupid I am guessing you mean splitting it in to sections ie beds but not coming up any height???

[Lottieval]

I grow in raised beds, I'm the only one on my site who does. Some of my beds have edging boards some don't, I pick up stuff from skips and the local tip,( sorry, amenity recycling site!) whenever I see something suitable. My paths are a mix of grass and membrane covered with bark which I get from Lidl and put down when I have the time.

I agree entirely with the reasons and advantages of this method and wouldn't do it any other way.

[zazen999]

When you say no raised bits what do you mean? Sorry to come across stupid I am guessing you mean splitting it in to sections ie beds but not coming up any height???

Yes, we just put 2 paths down our plot and 2 paths across....used weed fabric and tried that for the first year [think noughts and crosses]. Then, once we had agreed that this was the layout [we did alot of planning before we put the fabric down in the first place], we started putting sides on the beds. This way, the soil builds up gradually without you feeling as if you have to buy in loads of soil to build the beds up. The soil under the paths settles anyway, so you end up with some height quite quickly.

And you can change your mind if you want to.

[Snadger]

I grow in raised beds, I'm the only one on my site who does. Some of my beds have edging boards some don't, I pick up stuff from skips and the local tip,( sorry, amenity recycling site!) whenever I see something suitable. My paths are a mix of grass and membrane covered with bark which I get from Lidl and put down when I have the time.

I agree entirely with the reasons and advantages of this method and wouldn't do it any other way.

You appear to have MY allotment Lottieval!

[Snadger]

I quite agree - it was two years before I was happy enough to make things more permanent. Although now I realise that I have run out of room for an asparagus bed.



Alright, Steptoe I'm as mean as the next, hence being pleased with the free chippings (and a trailer load of free compost too), but the 'free' scaffold boards that I wanted to make the first couple of beds would cost £60 delivery, so rather than mix and match and wait till /i could find the bits I wanted, I bit the bullet and flexed the plastic.

Looks good though, I reackon.

Here's the 'Steptoe' version...total cost, now wait a minute until I add it up....oh yes, there's that and this, so lets see now that comes to..................NOWT!

[Snadger]

Oh..and of course my expensive cold frame.....!

[snohare]

now wait a minute until I add it up....oh yes, there's that and this, so lets see now that comes to..................NOWT!

Blooming heck Snadger, if all that cost nowt then you are ipso de facto an honorary Aberdonian ! You are the scrounger I would aspire to be.

[Couperman]

I justify the cost of my raised beds by comparing it to what we used to pay for organic veg from a box scheme.

We used to pay £15 for a box of veg per week! For that I can build a 18ft x 6ft raised bed in which I can grow enough veg to last a little longer than a week.

I now have ten beds this size and a three smaller ones. I think that as they make my massive plot more manageable I am less likely to jack it all in.

I did try to source some scaffold boards, had a few promises but none of them materialised

I built them one every now and then, it doesn't seem like it is costing so much that way.

[Glutton4...]

WOW! Lovely Lottie pics - now I know what to aim for! Here's what I'm planning, so feel free to shoot me down in flames lol!

Raised beds utilising sleepers that my Dad no longer needs. We have solid clay soil, and I really cba to dig or rotavate it, so I shall cover what's left of the grass (once the chooks have decimated it) with cardboard and old horse and chook feed sacks. Then I shall layer horse manure (free from the back end!) and grass mowings (some free from my customers' gardens) and let it rot down over the months until I can use it. I shall also add the compost from this years pots and growbags, and if I need/can afford to buy in a couple bags topsoil I guess I'll have to bite the bullet, or just stick to shallow rooted crops for the first year. Howzat!?

[basketcase]

Lovely plot but for an allotment it all looks a bit too organised to me.

WHAT?! So I've got to do all this work and make it look disorganised too?!

[basketcase]

Blooming heck Snadger, if all that cost nowt then you are ipso de facto an honorary Aberdonian !

I agree, snohare. Everybody knows that, although the official city motto is Bon Accord, the real motto is HOW Much??!!



PS: Great looking plot, Snadge

[snohare]

So I've got to do all this work and make it look disorganised too?!

Well, at least I've got half of it right then !

the official city motto is Bon Accord, the real motto is HOW Much??!!

Ah, so you've visited us then, basketcase !

Glutton,I don't know that I would put plastic sacks underneath all that manure and so on, cardboard and newspapers yes, but anything non-permeable will just make for drainage problems. You could also see if any local tree surgeons have any shreddings from their chippers going spare - some may want to charge you, but if so make sure they give you old, very well rotted stuff. (Fresh woodchips as they break down are full of bacteria that will scavenge all the nitrogen out of the ground, then after a year they start to release it in a form usable by plants. Makes for lovely humus rich soil in the end.)
Of course no-dig people just put down a bale of hay, stick a couple of inches of soil on top, and plant into that. Seems to work well, for leafy crops anyway.

[hmk]

Yes, we just put 2 paths down our plot and 2 paths across....used weed fabric and tried that for the first year [think noughts and crosses]. Then, once we had agreed that this was the layout [we did alot of planning before we put the fabric down in the first place], we started putting sides on the beds. This way, the soil builds up gradually without you feeling as if you have to buy in loads of soil to build the beds up. The soil under the paths settles anyway, so you end up with some height quite quickly.

And you can change your mind if you want to.

That's what we've done this year. I'm the only one to do it, although a couple of other (fairly) newbies have divided their plot into 4.
I can see the pros and cons, but for me (3 children, part time job plus other demands like Rainbow leader etc etc) a huge square was just too overwhelming. Plus, the old boys don't worry too much about crop rotation as they spray with Heaven knows what. As I want to avoid that, crop rotation in beds has been easier to get my head round. Ok, swedes have ended up in my roots bed, but it's basically there and this is my try it and see year!
We have some wood left over from building work, so with that and some scaffolding planks (new or accquired) we will start to edge the beds when we're happy with them. No money/effort wasted if we decide to rotivate the lot Don't think I will though. Apart from a few tweaks for next year it's worked very well and I am especially proud of my hazel/willow bean arch over the central path. Next year it'll be squashes...

To echo Snadger, some other newbies have taken over a 1/4 plot this year, and have bought a brand new 8 x 6 shed (Ours was from a neighbour and we got given some felt to redo the roof), a £500+ rotivator, brand new (expensive) tools, a greenhouse, more tools because they couldn't get on with the first set and more....Their plot now owes them an awful lot, and it'll take years to 'break even'. I know that's not the be all and end all of allotment gardening, but if they decide they can't do it next year...

HMK

[Glutton4...]

Glutton,I don't know that I would put plastic sacks underneath all that manure ...

They're paper sacks, two or three layers each. I used some of them this spring after I had dug and weeded my Dad's veg beds. I just covered the beds to warm the soil and suppress any further weeds. It worked well, but they started to disintegrate fairly quickly, which is what gave me the idea to use them. I have a ready supply from the horse and chicken feed that I buy, so may as well find a use for them.

[basketcase]

Ah, so you've visited us then, basketcase !

Nope! I live in Garthdee. But I knew I'd finally gone native when I argued with the attendant in the filling station because his meter had 'clicked' over from a whole pound to a 01p when I knew the pump hadn't. You can only hold out for so long...

Of course no-dig people just put down a bale of hay, stick a couple of inches of soil on top, and plant into that. Seems to work well, for leafy crops anyway.

Now that sounds like a plan...