What to do with raised beds and MFBs over winter?

[RobPro]

Hello,

The end of our first year of growing veg and it has largely been successful (minus the eradication of all brassicas!)

Our courgettes have reached the end of their lives and the tomatoes are slowing right down. What do people do with the remnant soil/root mass in the flower buckets that these plants were growing in? We have got several dozen.

Also, what do people recommend doing with raised beds over winter? Our raised beds were new this year and have therefore settled a lot. Do you recommend topping up with fresh soil (we used mushroom mix initially) or do you throw your flower bucket waste soil in them to top them up?

Thank you

[Penellype]

Some of my raised beds are growing winter crops, but the ones that aren't may well be covered with weed matting, not so much to keep the weeds down as to stop cats from using them as litter trays and to possibly prevent the rain from washing out too many nutrients.

I top up the raised beds with the contents of my hotbeds, which is effectively 1 year old horse manure.

My buckets grow various crops so I tend to rotate the compost, using fresh from the compost bin for potatoes, then either planting brassicas in it or sieving it for carrots. Once it has done the rounds of all 3 families of plants (possibly with beans or spinach thrown in somewhere), I spread it on the raised beds in spring to top them off before planting. The same goes for tomato and cucumber pots, which I tend to start with bought compost. I add bfb before planting in used compost to top up nutrient levels.

[Kirk]

Throw the flower bucket stuff on them.
Mine gets spread just about anywhere that looks a bit low, or in need of better structure.

Would half suggest manure this time rather then mushroom compost as mushroom can be somewhat alkali and the mushrooms will have taken most of the nutrients out. Also you tend to get mushrooms popping up.

Have found I grow a fair bit in containers and so at the end of the year have a fair bit to relocate.

I tend to count compost as good for creating a better more open soil but the nutrients come from manure. I need 3 bags soon.

[toomanytommytoes]

Potting mix get broken up and re-used for growing lettuce and Asian greens the greenhouse over winter. Once the greens are finished in the spring, the potting mix is sifted and used for container carrots or left chunky and used as filler for big pots and flower pots. Any left over is used to top up the raised beds, or just chucked into the borders as a last resort. Big bits of root go into the compost bins.

In winter our raised beds get a mulch mixture of compost, coffee grounds and leaves. This year I'm going to try some legume cover crops.

[monkeyboy]

I don't have a compost bin so any vegetable matter eg left over tomato plants get uprooted and chucked into the garden waste. Leftover compost gets chucked on to the raised beds. Ditto with unused compost. I then cover over with landscape fabric which is weighed down.

One bed is partially uncovered and I sow my autumn planting garlic. I still need a way to keep cats out because they dug and uprooted some of my garlic cloves this year.

[Jungle Jane]

Grow something other than tomatoes in the compost next year like crop rotation. I skim off the top two inch of compost & put in a bit of fresh,then cucumbers/melons/peas/carrots/lettuce can go in. If there’s any extra compost from pots that’ve had tomatoes & peppers in (& potatoes) it goes into old compost bags. Ive got used compost in bags from 2018 in a line,in the shade ready for next year. There’s always loads of worms in the used compost they must come up through the patio & enjoy eating the old roots etc. With the raised bed,I put a little layer of old tomato compost on top when planting,mines never topped up to the top.
If the flower bucket compost was thrown on the beds,would you need to buy new compost to fill them the next year? Old compost can be refreshed with BFB.

[Vegi potager]

I grow a lot in pots and other containers. At the end of the life of the plant I take out the worst of the root and use the rest to top dress a raised bed (if it needs it) I try to use what was growing the same family (brassica to brassica etc,) to pretend to maintain some kind of crop rotation. I also have a large dust bin that I collect used compost in. This year it came from the peppers/aubergines (fruiting veg) so will use in the containers for growing lettuce and carrots etc next year. I use my beans compost for Tomatoes ... Anything to reduce the purchase of more MPC, I need the money for seeds

[ameno]

Lately, I've been mixing my used compost with manure and garden soil (two parts compost to one part manure and one part soil) to use again next year.
Once it's a couple years old, it gets ditched onto the veg patch.

[chillithyme]

I use left over compost to add to veg beds where needed, to mulch plants and top up other containers. I sometimes store compost in bins for reuse later on.
Yesterday I reused some pots in which I grew tomatoes in by removing the bulk of the roots, giving a good hand mix and planting some heathers and primroses for winter.
Reuse mfbs for planting tulips and spring bulbs now, and when finished flowering put the bucket with bulbs aside for the following year, can re add compost and feed etc.
Direct sow poppies into mfb for next year.

[It never rains..it pours]

Will cover mine with seaweed, seems to protect soil from heavy rain, few weeds appear and cats dont seem to like it

[RobPro]

Thanks for the tips and info everyone!

I forgot to mention that some of our courgettes ended up getting mildew towards the end of the summer, is that soil OK to be reused/mixed into the raised beds?

[ameno]

Thanks for the tips and info everyone!

I forgot to mention that some of our courgettes ended up getting mildew towards the end of the summer, is that soil OK to be reused/mixed into the raised beds?

Yes. Powdery mildew doesn't survive long without a host. It's fine to re-use the compost and even compost the afflicted plants.

[muck lover]

I’ve been sieving leafmould and home made compost and mixing with old used compost and bfb for planting. I’m storing it in old plastic bins. The plan is to grow onions or potatoes followed by carrots or leeks or turnips or salad leaves and maybe tomatoes or chillis eventually. Although I have a big garden I still like to grow in containers as well. The only thing I do regarding rotation is to not reuse the compost for carrots in the same year as I don’t want carrot fly already in the soil.
Ultimately I will dump the compost on the beds but that hasn’t happened for a long time as I keep buying more containers...