Raised bed questions

[Raybon]

Decided to space/ thin plants properly this year, have found produce to be much improved (radish, beetroot, carrots, spinach, to name but a few.) having looked at that list have realised they are almost all root crops....

[Ja9]

I had also read that plants could be closer in a raised bed but I think in practice it depends upon what size crop you want. Several small cauliflowers may suit you better than a couple of huge ones for example. If the planting distance is 45 cm I tend to plant at 35 or even 30 , but that's getting a bit tight. I also plant fairly close to the edge of the bed as you can cram more in!Space is always tight and you never have enough, you will have to experiment and see what suits you. 90 cm would be very deep to fill. Mine are about 30cm tall.

[Noosner]

I love your plushly filled garden TS - looks fab.

I love your use of the word 'plushly', G4!

[Noosner]

My mulch of chopped weeds also helps keep the weeds down a lot, plus I don't pull the weeds anyway until they're about to flower. Letting them get big means they shade out the smaller ones, so you get fewer weeds overall.

How and at what stage of the weed's life do you make the mulch, TS? It sounds a wonderful idea and a way of using the weeds beneficially. Do you just chop them up with shears or is there a quicker way to do it?

[Noosner]

Alan Titmarsh is in my opinion a bit of a dipstick.

My friend retitled AT's book 'Nobbut a Lad' to 'Nobbut a Nob.'

Sorry, AT fans!

[Raybon]

Yep, what a very rich, successful 'nob'! The man most women want to be married to (apparently) in Britain.....read a poll somewhere!
Bet he's laughing all the way to the compost heap.

[Bill HH]

Yep, The man most women want to be married to (apparently) in Britain......

That's probably why I don't like him too much! but the main thing that makes me urge is the false Northern accent that he puts on, I am sure he didn't used to have it, I know he is / a northerner but then he went southern (BBC English) when it suited him, now he seems to have decided a northern accent gives him more gardening appeal. I love a northern accent but it has to be genuine. Bring back Percy Thrower I say.

Two sheds, your garden is looking brilliant and obviously well packed, but I still like room to fit my hoe between plants, not so much with the flowers though. A good thick mulch seems to be the best weed control there is.

[Noosner]

Yep, what a very rich, successful 'nob'! The man most women want to be married to (apparently) in Britain.....read a poll somewhere!
Bet he's laughing all the way to the compost heap.

I think I'd still go for Monty Don over Alan (not that either of them's asking...)

[Noosner]

That's probably why I don't like him too much! but the main thing that makes me urge is the false Northern accent that he puts on, I am sure he didn't used to have it, I know he is / a northerner but then he went southern (BBC English) when it suited him, now he seems to have decided a northern accent gives him more gardening appeal. I love a northern accent but it has to be genuine. Bring back Percy Thrower I say.

Two sheds, your garden is looking brilliant and obviously well packed, but I still like room to fit my hoe between plants, not so much with the flowers though. A good thick mulch seems to be the best weed control there is.

I got annoyed with AT when he started writing novels. I've no problem with any of his gardening stuff but I do get irked when celebs branch out into areas where they aren't as skilled. Probably just sour grapes though.

[Raybon]

Sour grapes make sweet wine! And Monty Don would be my choice too, nice and tall and he cooks!

[Martin H]

I can't quite put my finger on why I don't like AT, it's just that he never seems quite genuine. Also his style of gardening seems to involve spending large amounts of cash.

I find more appeal in the Geoff Hamilton school of molishing things out of old planks and scrap for the cost of a couple of quid's worth of decking screws. Also Geoff always seemed to care.

Back on topic, I plant domino-style in my beds, which are mounded no-walking-on ones so the soil is reasonably deep. You can fit more in without reducing the spacing between plants simply because you don't need gaps between rows to walk between. I do tend to steal the odd inch or two to get lots of plants in but not excessively. I think the plants should be rubbing elbows but not standing on each others toes.

This year I've started filling gaps with annual flowers like pot marigolds and corn poppies, that self-seed and I can pull up if they start to take over. I think I'll do more of that in future as long as the committee don't complain about the "weeds".

[Bren In Pots]

Sour grapes make sweet wine! And Monty Don would be my choice too, nice and tall and he cooks!

He's my choice as well just thought did you ever watch Monty Dons program called 'fork to plate ' its here on youtube if you missed it :-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvZyMnlh6Hs

[Noosner]

That looks fab, Bren - have tucked it behind my ear for later!

I agree that Geoff Hamilton was great, Martin. I liked the fact that in those days people were just gardeners who were on TV, rather than celebrity gardeners. There is a world of difference.

To get back on topic: Iain have you checked out the foot square gardening thread on here? It is fascinating and there may be some answers for you there.

[Iain]

Wow, thank you all very much for your advice and comments. I was starting to worry that I had decided to adopt a gardening style that no one else used. Sorry for not offering my thanks earlier I got side tracked building my first raised bed (based on the VegTrug, but built from reclaimed timber for a fraction of the cost) and planter for the front garden, the raised beds in the back will be more traditional in style and follow next year...

I got the AT book for £0.80 + £2.80p&p off Amazon... I have no preference toward or against AT I just don't know of many gardeners and wanted to dip my toe into gardening at a reasonable price whilst giving myself a reasonable chance of some succes.

I don't have any health problems, although I do get a bad back frequently due to my line of work.. I thought raising them up to waist hight would mean they were always easy and comfortable to work on.

I know it'll cost a few quid more, but I thought over the years of use the ease + apperance would make the cost worth while.

[Iain]

To get back on topic: Iain have you checked out the foot square gardening thread on here? It is fascinating and there may be some answers for you there.

On my way now thank you.