planning for this year .

[Ivanhoe]

I have been out in my garden today having a general tidy up and i was thinking what to plant where in a couple of raised beds i have .
These are not of massive size possible 6/7ft x 3/4ft max last year i planted carrots radish and some beetroot in them with mixed results .
The radishes did the best with a good crop of all variety's planted my carrots were ok but my beetroot was a complete failure .
Can anyone give me any ideas what to plant in this bed this year it has well/medium well drained soil and is manured each year .
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated .
The other question i have is after i had a bumper crop of Runner beans last year (Lady DI) can i use the same bean trench again and what should i do to prepare it .

[SarrissUK]

Radishes seem to do well everywhere. I just wish I enjoyed eating them more lol

I've never been successful with beetroot in tubs. For me it's always been best in the ground, although starting off in modules seem to work ok.

For the runner beans, feed copiously, but no particular action required other than that I think

[bramble]

Ivanhoe, the best advice I can give you is to grow what you like to eat.
Really the only way is through trial and error.
Is there anybody else near you that grows crops.
We are just at the beginning of the season so anything is possible.

[Snoop Puss]

In your raised beds, if they're close together, sweetcorn and a winter squash plant in each one?

As Sarriss says, you can use the same bean trench, just add more organic matter to it if you can. Still a while to go before planting so you should be OK. Don't add anything too nitrogen rich like muck, though, as it'll encourage leaf growth rather than pods. I learned that the hard way...

[Small pumpkin]

Definitely follow brambles advice grow what you like to eat.
Don't give up on beetroot just because you had one bad year with it. Try it again, it could of been sulking because it was a dry summer. Or try a different variety.
I'll be growing my runner beans in the same spot again this year. Lots of people do with no problem.

[annie8]

Last year was a really bad year for my beetroot. Was so hot and think I didn’t water enough so the ground was really hard. Don’t give up on them if you really enjoy them.

[Aberdeenplotter]

I'm a wee bit concerned that you say the beds are manured each year as root crops grown in fresh manure are likely to fork. As the others have said don't be discouraged by last year. The dry weather really was exceptional and didn't favour growing beetroot. On the plus side though it did help keep weeds under control.