Total newbie and raised beds

[pollyskettle]

Dave - Thank you, you are rapidly becoming my hero! I shall digest what you have said about compost and the suchlike later as I've just fed the hoards so have one eye on here and one on the food flying around the kitchen! I have one of those temperature things on my kitchen window - OH thinks I'm mental, but I've always had one there so I shall get a proper nice one for the fence. Do you think I could get away with keeping my chillis and peppers on the window sill? The sill is about 1.2m high and only has seedlings on it at the moment. I've got a digital 'baby room' thermometer on there and the temp has varied over the last week from 17deg at night to 35deg in full sun. The aubergines will have to wait until next year, I think, as it's too late to sow them, from what I gather.

I'll keep an eye out for the purple cauli - thank you.

IgglePiggle - I could hug you lol. Thank you for that link. I don't drive either so it will be a god-send. In fact the only reason I'm logged on at the moment is because I was just going to order some compost from Wilkos so I'm now merrily browsing that site and spending far too much again. I'll point the bank manager at this forum and tell him it's all your fault

ETA - Will I need to add sand to any of the beds please?

Or grit?

[vikkib]

Sounds like a good plan pollyskettle.

It might be worth drawing some raised beds, to the same scale as your garden plan, on a separate piece of paper and then cutting them out so you can lay them on top of the plan of your garden and move them around to see what you can make of the space. I always find it a good way of really 'seeing' the plan!

You could do some in slightly different shapes/sizes to the original ones you were planning so that you don't just focus on your original plan.

IgglePiggle - what a fab link! I haven't got a car either so I've been looking for somewhere that will deliver compost/grow bags etc.

[IgglePiggle]

Don't thank me, I think I've seen a couple of people recommended them on here. quark1 talked about them in this topic

[DaveInBraknell]

Grit/Sand to the beds, no you should be ok.

Re Chilli's, they will grow to a bush about 50-60cm tall and about 20-30cm wide not ideal for a window sill really.

What might be good might to make a small lean to against one of the fences or the side of the shed (Being the most robust), ie lay a long piece of poly-carb or some such against it in a small frame screw the top to the shed this way you'll get a small lean to greenhouse, don't put a raised bed there but put like a long planter box. you know those cheap rectangle ones you see in the garden centres (I grew my chillis in those last year with some good success) and it should give enough cover bit of a heath robinson affair but will do Make it plastic so your childs football bounces off it

Just make sure you close the ends off with another piece of plastic/wood to give it a good environment, you'll be amazed how how it gets

Dave

[pollyskettle]

Update plan. Any immediate issues anyone can see? I've left around 50cm between beds/fence/shed etc.

Will reply to other messages when children aren't trying to kill each other. Love the idea for the lean to though, thanks, Dave.

[IgglePiggle]

Just a quick update on Creative Garden Ideas if your still thinking about buying off them. We ordered 600ltr of compost on Sunday and it turned up today!!! The bloke even took it down the 21 steps

[pollyskettle]

Thanks IgglePiggle - I came so close to ordering last night and saw delivery was 10-12 days. I want it yesterday lol. I'm going to order it all today. I did calculate that one bed will need over 1000 ltrs due to the depth and that's one of the smaller beds, but I've begged and borrowed cardboard and paper (I assume shredded is ok?) to throw in the bottom, along with some bark/woodchips I have lying around.

Patience is not one of my virtues!