First ever planting today

[mattyaimeeralphie]

Hi everyone

I am planting my first bits into my brand new plot later on today, ive got few courgettes mangetouts and onions to put in. I pretty much have a good idea of the spacing etc, my only worry is i have no raised beds nd a plot that 15ft from path to path wide and stretches over 100ft long any tips about treading on the soil etc i know some people use scaffold boards (which i dint have).

I want to have it like an old school plot with simple rows going across. Any help would be great.

[SusieG]

Welcome to the Vine mattyaimeeralphie! What a mouthful of a name you have..!!!

I don't have a lottie, so can't advise, but someone who does will soon be along to point you in the right direction!

Happy growing!

[Guest]

Just mark your rows out clearly both ends so you know that is the bit not to tread on and you should be fine. Leave enough space between rows to allow hoeing and you getting to crops to harvest

[WendyC]

Exciting times! I don't use raised beds, in fact I wouldn't invest the time and money in them until you know how you are going to work your plot, if at all. It would be worth you getting some boards to walk on, if not for now but over the winter. I'll take a photo of my boards when I got to my plot later. They give me the flexibility to change the layout at a whim.
You say your rows are 15' long but don't forget you don't have to plant a whole row at a time, you could stagger the planting or seed sowing, as you may not want, say 15' of lettuce ready all in one go.

[Scarlet]

Welcome to the vine Matty

Is it all ready for planting? What state is it in? Have you got any photos?
Have you remembered to harden off those courgettes?

[Snoop Puss]

I agree with WendyC. I don't have raised beds in the sense of earth mounded up within sides made of wood or other material. In my main veg patch, the beds are each 15 metres long. What I do is rake out the worst of the cloddy stuff to the sides to make a little raised earth wall (no more than a few centimetres high). That indicates where the beds are and keeps the water in when I'm watering. I make the beds relatively narrow now (around 80 cm wide only), which means I can step over them and never need to step on them. The paths between them eventually define themselves simply by being harder and drier.

Over the years, I have changed the orientation of my beds from east to west to north to south, I've altered how wide they each are, I've increased the number of beds and I've had my land ploughed by a tractor on a few occasions. All of which you can do if you don't have fixed raised beds in place. This isn't to say that raised beds are no good: obviously they are. But I like the flexibility that sticking to "old school rows" gives me.

My main veg patch has twelve of these beds, so that makes it easier for me to rotate my crops in four groups of three beds. Each of my rotation 'groups' isn't all the same family of plants, though. For example, one group consists of root crops and squash, melons and courgettes. And the place where my winter carrots and beetroot will eventually go is initially given over to crops like lettuce.

Sorry if this post is a bit long and tedious. I hope it helps, though. Happy growing!

[Kirk]

15ft is about 4.5 meter which is a bit too wide for simply heading to B+Q or Wicks etc and getting a couple of gravel boards, or if you wanted a pack of gravel boards.

Best is to wander down to one and see what lengths they have in them, they might go to 4.5 but I suspect 3.2 or 3.6 is the longest for normal usage. Have seen 4.2 meter decking but that gets too costly, try the gravel board.

[Jay-ell]

A raised bed in its simplest format is really just a bed where the soil is higher than the paths.

The paths will define themselves with use or you can lay something along the edges to remind you which is which - I've used the plastic lawn edging, stones, odd bits of wood just to give a visual reminder.

You can also scrape off some of the top soil from the paths and pile that back onto the bed.

I have planked edges now because I got sick of telling someone not to walk on the beds even if they are empty.

[Bigmallly]

Welcome to the vine Matty, roughly mark out the beds/paths with stix & string.............Just don't trip up over them...............

[WendyC]

Here's how I make paths between the beds. Each board is 120cm long and 30cm wide.