No point putting in a load of work only to find out you hate growing fruit and veg. It compresses the soil making it harder for water, and therefore nutrients to penetrate down to roots.Īlthough I’d advise you to draw up a layout for the maximum number of beds I’d advise starting small with just a couple of beds, and adding more as you go. This is for two reasons, firstly it’ll allow you to fit in at least two rows of plants and secondly, it allows you to weed the centre of the bed without having to stand on the bed. Regardless of whether you go for raised or flat beds I think it’s best to limit the width of the beds to no more than 1.2m or 4ft. Just buy the most durable you can afford as it’ll save you a lot of heartache in the long run. If you don’t want to construct a raised bed from scratch you can buy proprietary systems online. If you use timber to build your raised beds it can be tempting to use pressure treated timber as it will last longer but you may not want the chemicals used on this material leaching into the soil you grown your edible crops in. Timber is easier to build with and will help to heat up the soil quicker but will also rot more quickly. Brick or blocks are more permanent and require quite a bit of skill to construct properly. Raised beds can be built from any solid material and there are pros and cons to all of the construction options. On the downside raised beds are more expensive to construct, can’t easily be relocated, require a huge amount of topsoil to fill and the edging around the beds can be a great hideouts for slugs and woodlice. Raised beds also warm up quicker than flat beds, particularly if built from a material that quickly absorbs heat from the sun like timber. The proponent of the very productive no-dig method Charles Dowding uses flat beds very successfully in his garden but a lot of people favour raised beds because they often look neater and if they’re higher than 12″ deter carrot fly. Raised beds can be any height and if high enough can avoid you having to bend down entirely. If possible locate your beds close to a rainwater butt as this will save you so much time, and back ache, lugging watering cans down the garden.įlat beds are simply just a marked-off section of bare soil that you plant into while raised beds are constructed to be higher than the surrounding ground level. It’s true that if you want to grow sweet fruit or tomatoes your plants will need a lot of sunshine but not all vegetables like full sun, like lettuce and broccoli, so don’t be afraid to have some of your veg beds partially shaded. Most people assume that a fruit and veg garden should be in full sun. If you like your sources to remain independent then please share this article, or Nothing mentioned in this article has been sponsored. So if I whetted your appetite for growing fruit and veg with my previous articles and you’re planning to designating a section of your garden to this endeavour, here are my tips on how best to go about it. I really should have published this before I wrote my other articles on growing veg but this happens when you write articles that follow life rather than ones that are planned and executed like a professional magazine. I appreciate that I have really put the cart before the horse with this article.
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