nuclear bunkers done !

[grahama]

Hi all,

I have today completed building my raised beds, a little over engineered with thick scaffold boards. Each one is 8' x 3' 6" and now need filling.

The grass that two of them are resting on I intend on digging up and mixing in with some manure and then we'll see how much top soil I can scrounge !!

Total build cost £15 each, recycling saves you a fortune.

Regards,

Graham

[Nicos]

Urmmm..are they fixed in those positions yet???

They look fantastic...(but)...If it's not too late I'd give yourself 18" to 2ft between them ....and the fence so you can get to them from all side- it's difficult to weed 42" away!!...or pick at that distance at head height!

hope you don't mind me suggesting it if it's not too late???


..even so- they look super!

[grahama]

This is all the space I was allowed to pinch from the general garden space so will unfortunately have to make do. Am 6 ft tall so tall picking should be fine and intend to make a seat to span the beds to make weeding easer for myself.

Thats the plan anyway

Graham

[Snadger]

In this neck of the woods they would be looked upon as "Damm good leek trenches"

If you manage to fill them to about six inches from the top, you could put glass /perspex or polythene over them early season to warm the soil up and start seedlings.

What have you got planned to grow in em?

[grahama]

Planed are raspberry canes and rhubarb in one, asparagus gooseberries and assorted onions and salad in another and garlic peas and squash in the third. Lots of things planned but will see how I with that to start with.

Graham

[FionaH]

They look great. Keep nibbling away at the garden for more growing space too
Only thing I would say is don't under estimate how much room squash takes up, darn things took over my garden last year

[Burnzie]

Hi Graham, can you put your fruit bushes and rhubarb in your garden borders. This would make more raised bed space available for vegetables, will also help with rotation.

Proper job on the raised beds, should last years !

Burnzie

[esrikandan]

I would have thought Raspberries would be better of in the soil next to the fence, rather than tying up a raised bed. The advantage of the raised bed being lost with more permanent crops.

[grahama]

I see where you are coming from but I have no boarders as the garden was one of the low maintenance sort . I will discuss with my OH to see if she minds giving me some additional space !! And space is the problem in my garden

[RedThorn]

Nice job!

A cunning plan for when you can convince her to give up more space later with your lovely fresh produce is split 1 in half (1 board high) and slowly expand that way Nice beds. Mine at home are made with scaffold boards too. They're brilliant ain't they!

[basketcase]

Or perhaps you could make the borders into a sort of cottage garden type thing with rasps. cut flower and various pretty looking veg - or espaliered fruit trees. None of it takes up a lot of space and it looks nice and gives extra produce.

Snadger's the expert on this sort of thing - or get Geoff Hamilton's book/DVD 'Ornamental Kitchen Garden'. It might convince her. (Snadger has a thread too, but I don't know how to do that...

BTW - nice bunkers!

[grahama]

I have planted the seed of moving the single bed forward a foot or so to allow raspberries to be planted behind along the fence Just need to make the OH think it was her idea, that's the hard part !!

Also could plant the rhubarb to the left of the raised bed nearest the other fence then just the gooseberry bush to move ! Am also going to sink them into the ground a little too, just a bit too tall.

Thanks for the ideas

Graham

[Newbie]

Just be careful if you plant Rasps in your borders that they don't start trying to take over your whole garden & start throwing up suckers in the middle of your lawn!

[jayjay giant]

They look great ! A job well done.
I left a space between mine of a mower and a half so that I could grow things like courgettes that overhang the sides without encroaching on the other beds.
I took loads of pictures too ! It really gives you a sense of achievement when you do something like this !
Congratulations

James

[Ringo Grumio Nibbler]

Hi all,

I have today completed building my raised beds, a little over engineered with thick scaffold boards. Each one is 8' x 3' 6" and now need filling.

The grass that two of them are resting on I intend on digging up and mixing in with some manure and then we'll see how much top soil I can scrounge !!

Total build cost £15 each, recycling saves you a fortune.

Regards,

Graham

How come you had that number of scaffold boards lying around?