Raised Beds

[Sunbeam]

I've had an allotment for over 12 months - it's not huge, but it is v v heavy clay so it's either too heavy to dig when wet ( & then you get enormous clods that you can't plant anything on) or you can't get the spade/fork in the ground when it's dry. Even my super digging neighbour (who's a groundsman for a living) brings in vast quantities of excess top soil from jobs to put on the top and plants into this. I have half of it dug & planted with the ongoing crops (sparra-grass/rasps/strawbs/Rhubarb etc) but I'm thinking raised beds for the rest + my greenhouse

I have burned off all the weeds and covered the plot with black polythene - can I put the raised beds on top of this if I make lots of drainage holes in it , or should I put down weed membrane instead? I was tied up with a communty project for 12 months which finished in May, so I have nothing prepped to go in from seed - I'm thinking raised beds will be a quick & effective solution and much more maintenance (& back) friendly

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[zazen999]

Snap! That's what we had. Either thick and sticky or solid as a rock.

If you put weed fabric or keep the plastic under, it will make the problem worse by not allowing any water to drain.

I found the best things to add were free anyway!

I put weed fabric down so that we had walkways that would never be dug. We had 9 large rectangular beds [not raised at the time] - pic attached of the weed fabric on it's first day....

Then, put cardboard/newspaper down with clods of clay to weigh them down. Added coffee grounds [get bin bags full from st*rbucks] and use as a mulch or dig in. And our lottie neighbour gets huge bags of sawdust from a local chippie's so he gets some for us each time. Any bags of sand get added to the onion/carrot beds so each year we are incorporating more drainage in as well.

Then, compost your weeds in two ways....non-deep rooted put on the heap and deep rooted leave to dry in the sun or drown; any drowned can be disposed of [once dead] in holes dug into the clay.

All the above methods rely on the worms doing most of the work for you.

You don't need the beds to be raised; but after a while we wanted them raised so I got some wood to put round them, and now we have split some of the 9 beds into shorter ones. Most of the wood was free as I saw a chap with a load in the back of his van and I followed him, he went into the local tip so I nabbed the wood off him - he helped me load it and it did for more than half the bed sides.

Making them from scratch is very costly, time consuming and permanent! So, I'd suggest flat beds...or ones like in the picture [from Brooklyn Botanical Gardens Children's Veggie Garden] in which they are slightly raised with no sides to them.

then as you work the plot, you can do it at a more leisurely pace.

Also, have a look at Supersprout's allotment and the way she used the No Dig approach. It's in Growing Techniques and there is a link in the Allotment Advice area.

[Sunbeam]

That's brilliant - thank you! You have a seriously huge plot in comparison to mine (I think the length of mine would be about the width of yours! The daft thing is where I have dug over for the past 2 years the soil is super, but it's absolutely back breaking getting to that point & it still takes it out of you turning this!

I have snaffled my son's homemade sand pit/box (which the bottom rotted out of) for carrots & recycled some old scaffold boards for a bed which is currently around my rasps doing nothing inparticular - so that's going to be moved & back filled but I never thought of cardboard as a base - coffee grounds & cardboard boxes are a plenty at the cafe I used to work at so I'll help my self there & help my ex-boss recycle!

I see a light at the end of the tunnel!

[Sunbeam]

Just as an add on now I can see a way forward - how much poo can I add to the mix? I have a nicely rotting poo pile sitting at the bottom of the allotment - also do you leave a weedy/nettley patch for the insects - or is that an excuse not to dig over that bit!

[zazen999]

Hi

I took a photo of our flower bed last night in fact....hang on

We have rhubarb in there, with some cardoons and we leave nigella to self seed, and i've added cosmos and sweetpeas the day before yesterday. The nigella will be flowering any day soon!

We have poppies all around the plot [we leave them to flower in corners] and I have chives all round the central bed which is now raspberries underplanted with strawberries....and I leave leeks and onions to flower and set seed, have poached egg plant, nasturtiums, dyer's chammomile and violas which also self seed. I am also putting Flax in where I have spaces, and of course comfrey is flowering at the moment [I leave one to flower and the rest get chopped and used for fertiliser]. The poppies are just lifting their heads and will be flowering any day soon....i've included some from last year just because....the poppy shot was taken 15th June last year so we're not that far behind this year....

It's not the most tidy plot [after all it is mine!] and I've lost some beds due to the manure issue [until they come and take it away] but we love it!

You can use manure as a mulch or dig it in....make sure it is well rotted. Best to dig it in now if planting and mulch over empty beds - put it under the cardboard to layer it if you are leaving the beds for the winter. Remember your carrot and p*****p bed won't need any manure at all. These are the only beds I ever actually dig apart from digging perennial weeds out.