can I turn these into vegetable beds? -

[Madame Mucksprout]

My garden (3rd year of ripping out nettles and brambles and bind weed) has been hard landscaped with a maze of concrete paths and rockery patches.
I want to grow vegetables in these beautiful shapes. They are small patches.

My worry is that the soil is shocking! (clay, rocks, ALL the pests and myriads of weed roots).
Is it possible to raise the edges (with more rockery stones) and line them with a weed matting and buy in some soil to make raised beds with decent soil/no weeds and less pests for a while)?

Would it work? or will it not drain and Im making ponds? any ideas for me?

Ill attach a sketch and a photo (its covered in carpet to help the weeds but might help show what I mean).

Thankyou for reading

[veggiechicken]

I can't relate your photo to your description or the plan
However, veg beds don't have to be square, they can be any shape you choose. The quality of the soil dictates what will grow well there. Root veg won't thrive in stony soil!
Think about what you want to grow and tailor beds to meet their needs.

[Scarlet]

I'm on clay, just keep adding mulches and dig out the rocks as you come across them.
If nettles were growing the soil should be fine?

[Madame Mucksprout]

yes - Many MANY nettles. Brambles and MUCH bindweed. It hadnt been cultivated for near on 30 years... hence nature taking the whole thing back

[Madame Mucksprout]

ah! sorry - its an odd situation and my sketching isnt great. Thanks for trying to think of my predicament though - :-) Great to hear that veg beds dont HAVE to be square, thats a start at least.

Do you have any views on the millions of pests (slugs, snails and every pant eating pest you can think of)... .Will they be so very thoroughly embedded in the soil that my vegetables wont stand a chance? Its not been touched for 30 years so it is a complete haven for baddies (aswell as goodies).

[Scarlet]

If it's not been touched for 30 years or grown any veg it should be lovely to grow in with no previous veg related diseases.
I can't grow garlic, onion or leeks due to white onion rot.
The pests will be the same as in every garden? Just collect slugs and snails as you go.

[Dynamite]

Looks great for it MM. I would be happy with the quirky shapes. Things don’t have to be in symmetrical rows.

Hope the pets in the pic are toilet trained and also won’t walk on your seedlings when planted. Might need covers.

Kind Regards.............Rob

[greenishfing]

Our allotments are clay. When we took them on they had not been cultivated for over 20 years and had been used as a dumping ground for years. The council gave us a years free rent because they were so bad. Fast forward over 10 years...the soil is fertile. We grow allsorts. We still get all the pests, but far less. It was really hard work originally. We had couch grass growing on top of couch grass and acres of bind weed and docks, nettles and brambles. Over the years we have added tons of well rotted manure (some cow and some horse) and I practise crop rotation as best I can. If we can do it anybody can if they really want to.

[mrbadexample]

Plant stuff in it. It will grow, but it might not be great. That doesn't really matter, it will improve. It's clay, so add organic matter whenever you can. It's full of stones, so every time you visit the bed take 10 away. It's surprising how quickly it will improve.

[Peteyd]

If I understand what you are trying to put across correctly, you are looking at making some crazy shaped beds that meander around the garden with the paths. I think its a great idea, Gardens should reflect the areas around them and using the flow of the paths to direct how the beds look is a great way of tying everything in together.

We too have incredibly heavy clay soil, tied in with a previous occupants inexplicable love of burying random lumps of concrete means that we have had to really put some effort into our beds. we dug down about 2 foot, one barrow load at a time, removing all stones we could using a 10mm sieve. As the soil was replaced we mixed it with loads and loads of sand, Multi-purpose compost and general organic matter. Its taken a couple of years but the soil has really come around and is looking lovely.

[weegie]

Have a look at Charles Dowding's books and videos on no-dig gardening. I have How to create a new vegetable garden which is good, and there is a new edition coming out in September, but he has written lots of others. Ideally find them in a bookshop and compare them to see which suits you best. They are also available for Kindle but I find it much easier to browse and consult with a real book. (NB I have no connection with CD.)

We bought in a load of municipal compost, also known as green waste. It was very cheap at £30 for 1 tonne / 655 litres, i.e. a large builder's bag, though delivery was another £30. It was quite coarse and woody with odd bits of plastic, but breaking it up and digging it in a bit has given very good results. I've a thread about my progress here.

I love your plan with all the curves - it will look wonderful once things are growing!

[ESBkevin]

@Madam Mucksprout the soil will be OK. To get the best out of it (despite the bindweed), lay a double layer of brown corrugated cardboard on the soil and a thick layer of organic mulch atop of that. Leave it then until next year now. Then a thin layer of fresh compost, pull any weeds and you have a wonderful no dig bed ready to grow marvelous veg.

[Gillykat]

I like the swirly beds and meandering path effect I'm completely redesigning my allotment over the coming months so am very tempted to do the same sort of thing

I wouldn't stress too much about pests as Nature will sort out a nice balance of predators to keep those naughty pests in check. Having a wildlife pond will help enormously as it should attract frogs, toads & newts. Perhaps put in a couple of small log piles to attract beetles (those black ground beetles just lurve to munch on slugs!), plant flowers in amongst the veg to attract predators like ladybirds and hoverflies etc which will hoover up the aphids.

The main thing though.....go 100% organic, no pesticides, sprays, slug pellets etc - trust in Nature to get a lovely balance sorted for you

[Kirk]

Shapes are irrelevant, depth of the curvy bed is more important.
To improve the soil basically add just about anything but do add wel rotted manure.

Place near me has bags of "compost" in at 4 for £10. Useless compost, but a very good fine mulch that can be dug into the heavy soil I have. Result is good. I go buy 4 at a time and sdd to whatever bit I decide needs it next.

The unwanted plants - nettles and bindweed and whatever else, I suggest that if you want them dead then kill them. No use being nice they don't understand nice. The term "Terminated with extreme prejudice" is the most relevant.

[muckdiva]

I think it could be amazing with all those different shapes. I would try raising the edges as you say, maybe on just a few beds to see how it goes. I would dig out any large roots such as tree stumps, then add a thick layer of cardboard in the bottom of the bed to suppress the weeds and then add layers of composting materials such as grass clippings, straw, manure, shredded paper, spent compost etc (google ‘lasagne gardening’ to see what I mean) and top with some topsoil that you can plant into. Everything will rot down as your crop grows and you’ll build up nice fertile beds. Good luck with your garden and have fun!