Pea and bean bed

[rary]

What do you think would be the minimum width and depth to make a raised bed for peas and beans

[Jungle Jane]

I think 30cm or one foot deep should be alright,like the depth of a black bucket. How do you want to plant it all double row of beans like a zig zag,peas at front in gaps? Or the beans singularly up canes in one row? How many bean plants do you like to grow to work out the minimum width

[rary]

The beans will be in a single row, about 7ft. long, and the same with the peas

[Jungle Jane]

40cm width would be nice for both plant types. 30cm might be a bit tight but would probably still work,dwarf peas could trail over the edge towards the sun. Are you planting any peas & beans to overwinter? If you’ve got old seeds they could be used as a cover crop then dug in when you want the bed or left there & planted around,lots of options

[rary]

I dont really have room for the trailing plants, the widest I want the bed to be is 12 inch which I think is 30cm. I hope the depth will compensate for the width, as for sowing old seeds it gets too cold for the beans to grow, so if put in the ground they would just rot, but will try some peas, I will get some into pots tomorrow, so thanks for the suggestion

[nick the grief]

I'm about to start reclaiming the bottom of our garden into 2 4ft wide beds and I was going to put a line of posts up either side of the path and make a tunnel for the beans and peas to climb up and then grow a few lettuce at the bottom in the shade and use the rest of the bed to grow other stuff.

By making a raised bed you'll increase drainage and the soil should warm up a bit earlier so you should be able to grow beans - that said I always sow them in pots and then plant out as we have a lot of pigeons round here.

[bramble]

I dont have room in my garden to give over to beans but I sowed builders buckets with The Sutton and Bunyards Exhibition a couple of weeks ago.
The Bunyards have all germinated. They are in my cold greenhouse. First time growing them.

[rary]

Have now started my pea/bean bed, it is made by a timber retaining wall and backing onto a wooden fence 12 inch wide 20 inches high, about 12ft long base lined with teram to keep the tree roots out, this has been covered by a layer of turf turned upside down and that covered by a good layer of cardboard, which in turn has been covered with a layer of garden compost about 10 inches deep, I intend covering that with some burn sand which I will work into the compost to help open it up and assist with drainage, the fact that it's contained will help me clean out any seed weeds that might be in the sand, which means I can safely empty it at the end of the season, for replenishing it next year

[nickdub]

One thing anyone who is thinking of dedicating a bed, raised or not, to a single sort of vegetable needs to bear in mind is soil born disease. Peas for example if they are grown year after year in the same bed often go down with a fungus problem in the end. That does not stop them cropping altogether but will mean reduced crops.

I have never bothered much with crop rotation myself, but it does have some merits, even in a small space. One end of a bed for one crop, then swap it round the next year for example.

[rary]

^^^^ That's why I intend emptying the bed at the end of the season, when it's quite narrow, I don't want to risk the possibility of disease building up

[bikermike]

I just use my standard beds (1.4m x 2.7m), and do two rows leaning on a middle support, and rotate round This year, I have grown NZ yam in the middle. This avoids wasting the space and keeps weeds down.

I'll find out soon how successful they were.

[rary]

Covered the compost with course burn sand today, I will get it worked through the compost in the next day or so, it was too cold today

[Jungle Jane]

When the peas & beans are finished,rocket could be sowed direct for some greenery overwinter,it survives really cold weather here & insects love the flowers early spring,they are pretty,I’ll find a photo -

[bikermike]

I just use my standard beds (1.4m x 2.7m), and do two rows leaning on a middle support, and rotate round This year, I have grown NZ yam in the middle. This avoids wasting the space and keeps weeds down.

I'll find out soon how successful they were.

Finally dug them, got 2kg out of that bed compared to 7kg out of two similar-sized beds. I'll do it again though, as the space under the beans is usually a morass of weeds, and isn't this year, so it's worth it for that.