what sized bed's

[greenfingers007]

Hi all,

Intending to get down the Allotment at the weekend to measure everything out, I was just woundering what sized beds would be best, I have had two thoughts.

Firstly 8 Beds of 7' wide and 20' long 4 on each side of the allotment.

or

16 beds of 7' wide by 10' long any sugestions would be most welcome, as you can see I seem to have an obsession with everything being equal else it rips my mind to shreds.

but I am trying to overcome this so any sugestion would be most welcome.

Thanks

[Two_Sheds]

As mentioned in a thread the other day on the same topic, the point of raised beds is that you don't ever walk on them.

Therefore you need to be able to reach to the middle of each bed with your hands - so, the width would be about double the length of your arm. About 4 foot give or take.

[Two_Sheds]

here's another thread, same question: http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...eds_22593.html

[Maf]

as you can see I seem to have an obsession with everything being equal else it rips my mind to shreds.

Me too ! My bathroom has a sink in front of the window but it's not quite central.... I have dreams of taking a sledge hammer to it

OH is completely unaware that the little dividers in the dishwasher are to space plates EVENLY, facing the SAME DIRECTION, WITHOUT GAPS

[greenfingers007]

Maf get the sledge hammer it is doing head in just thinking about it.

I love walking aroung the whole allotment site admiring everyones gorgeous veg patches all perfectly spaced it is great.

[j r hilton]

I agree that raised beds should not be more than 4ft wide especially with short arms like mine.

[moggssue]

I had the same question a few months ago when I first got my allotment and, following advice from the lovely peeps on here, I made my beds narrower than I'd originally planned. Boy am I glad I did! Even now it's a stretch to reach into the middle - especially when you want that one big onion in the middle but dont want to disturb the ones closer to the edge. Definitely go for narrower beds you can easily reach the centre of - I may make mine a little narrower again this winter then they will definitely be no walky no diggy!

[Tracey]

My raised beds are 6' x 6'. I don't have a problem reaching into the middle. Maybe that's because I'm tall. I wouldn't consider any wider though.

[Demeter]

I have been literally AGONISING about how to lay out my beds for weeks.

I have just started marking out the beds today using cardboard to make the paths (gonna need a LOT of cardboard lol). I decided not to make anything too permanent to begin with as I want to live with it for a year before I settle on any particular layout, just in case I get it wrong!

Anyway, I wanted to have a decent central path running the whole length of the plot, with smaller ones at each side so I can get around easily, and I eventually settled on having beds running across the width of my plot, East to West. The reason for this is because there is a prevailing wind that blows through the site from the West and I want to make sure that rows of tall plants / bean frames etc are not broadside to the wind. So I have ended up having beds about 6 or 7 feet in length - quite short but it gives me more beds and greater flexibility when it comes to crop rotation so that's probably all for the best

As for the width of the bed - after much deep and profound brain things inside my head, I have decided to make them only around 3 feet wide. This is partly to save me having to stretch too much when digging the bed or tending the crops etc, partly because I have a little helper who only has short arms, and partly because I don't have any urgent need to maximise growing space (my first year after all, and I'm not aiming to feed the five thousand, only me and the helper, and frankly she's only in it for the raspberries). I will, however, make sure the cardboard paths between beds are wide enough that I can easily "borrow" a bit of path should I decide that I want to make the beds a bit wider without rearranging the entire plot...

Having started marking them out now, it's a great weight off my mind, all this worrying about whether I've made the right decision - now it's done I can stop thinking about it lol