Grow Your Own Magazine

Hello I am new and this is my first post. I have just bought and had erected an 8.6 x 7.1 greenhouse. We have very small garden and the only spot we could put it was on the patio. I want to grow a lot of tomatoes down one side and the other side I want two tier staging growing bushy varieties of aubergine, peppers etc.
I was just wondering what is the best way to go for my toms? Do I make a frame out of tanalised timber and fill it with gravel on bottom and then compost? Would it need a liner? What is the ideal depth? I have seen the diy modular kits but they don't make them in the size I need and also they seem very shallow. Surely the more compost I can get in the better. Would I be able to grow salad veg alongside the toms?
Apologies for so many questions. Thank you.

Please see my last post ref filling these beds.

Hi Cheffi - and welcome to the Vine!

Sorry I can't really answer your questions as I haven't gone for raised beds in the greenhouse, but I have raised beds in the polytunnel. They are on earth, but it was pretty rough, so I covered them with membrane, a layer of gravel on the bottom and then compost. They are 10/12" deep and so far I have grown dwarf/climbing beans, peas, leeks and carrots (although I had to pick those young). I find I need a lot of mulch on the top to stop everything drying out. So far I have managed to plant my toms direct into the soil.

I'm sure someone alot more knowledgeable than me will be along soon!

Hello Cheffi, and welcome to the Vine. A lot of questions there and not entirely sure what you are asking. You don't have to make raised beds in your greenhouse unless you have a reason for doing so.
You can dig out the borders and plant into them if you want to do it that way. I don't so maybe someone else will advise you on that method.
You can grow your tomatoes in growbags, or 12" pots. Your aubergines and peppers will be fine in 9" pots - or 3 to a growbag.
As for your salad things - over summer it will be too hot for lettuce and the like in the greenhouse. They will get on fine outside.
You could use your greenhouse to get early and late salad crops.
Hope this is of some help.

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From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.

Thank you for replies. I did say that the gh was on the patio therefore nothing to dig into. I know I can grow in pots but wouldn't a bed be better? Do the pots restrict the growth and crop? If not then I am prepared to go down the large pot route. Thanks for salad info, so I would be better off putting them in a coldframe then?

Brilliant site, couldn't stop reading the posts last night even though I have no allotment or any exposed soil for growing anything. It's just me and the greenhouse.

I have just installed raised beds into the greenhouse I inherited! It is a home made affair on my allotment and and has a flagged floor similar to how I imagine your patio will be.

Mine has a brick base up to two foot high around it. I have made an L shaped raised bed along one side and one end. For drainage all I did was lift some of the flags that were inside the bed.

The beds are full of well rotted manure now and I intend to grow peppers, sweet and chillie,melons,cukes and cape goose berry along with anything else that isn't a tomato!.

In the winter I will construct a cover to go over the top and use it as I would normal normal staging, for bringing my plants on!

If yours is glass to ground your frame will need a 'back' on the glass side!

PS Welome to the vine Cheffi!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

Sounds good Snadger. Yes mine's glass to the bottom but I already have a cunning plan, well not cunning but a plan. I am going to make them out of tanalised timber with a liner and if poss I may try to lift a flag or two for drainage.

If the timber you use is tanalised you shouldn't need a liner! By using a liner you may get all sorts of creepy crawlies hiding between the liner and the frame!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

.....You won't need to lift slabs either I wouldn't have thought. As to your's snadger, have you thought that is you make your staging a bit higher you could force Rhubarb, Asaragus or Chicory under tour staging with the addition of a bit of curtain/black out blinds ( I bet LJ will still have the ones she made in the war ...... Boer war that is )

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ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

http://grief-encounters.blogspot.com/

Yes but I am a girl and I am going to be the one making this bed, so the chances are there will be mahoooooosive gaps. I will see how it goes, if no gaps then I'll not bother with the liner and if gaps I'll line it and get myself a super jet powered water pistol to blast the creepy crawlies.

Ok...you asked for it...here's the story. As you know, I have a wood burning stove that requires fuelling. One of the guys on the allotments does house clearances and had a load of timber on his wagon which I wanted...the only problem was he also had a stone fireplace on the wagon as well! He wouldn't tip one without the other, so I finished up with a load of dressed stone as well as the timber for burning!
You can guess what I built the raised beds with, with enough left for a small stone fireplace around my log burning stove!
Anyway, on the Victorian Kitchen garden he planted his melons in raised beds in the glasshouse and as I am 'theming' my lottie similarily as a Potager, to a crazed mind like mine, this seems very logical!

PS The flagged floor of my greenhouse has quite a slope on it, so when I water the beds I don't want it running out of the bottom all over the floor, hence the reason I have lifted the internal flags! I may even put under soil pipes from the stove under the soil eventually!
I also have three sheds for forcing stuff if required.

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

You won't need to grow your sald in a cold frame Cheffi. My lettuce, spring onions, pak choi, radish, red onions, rocket and much more, are all growing in the ground. If you want to start early, or grow on late, then use your greenhouse, but by this time, outside is fine.
Good luck with the raised beds.

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From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.

my toms are in ring culture black buckets, 3 to a growbag by the walls of the g/h (I may live to regret that) and 2 to a growbag on the front row. 4 of my special Supersprout pineapple toms are ring cultured (same buckets) in their own plastic stacking boxes to give them a bit more room. These are all sitting on the gravel base of the g/h so have plenty of drainage.

All I've got alongside the toms is my pot marigolds and some Naughty Marietta french marigolds to help dissuade the beasites.

All the chillies and peppers are in t'other g/h which will also house the aubergines. I've not even thought how I'm going to accommodate those yet !

Apart from all that I have no idea what I'm doing and this is very much an experimental year ! I'm doing a lot of hoping and praying !

Welcome to the vine Cheffi.

when i last grew toms in a greenhouse i put them in a wooden box / raised bed 5' by 2' by 1' deep and lined it with plastic with no holes in it , and grew three moneymaker toms in it without no problems.
the plastic liner made life easier as you said about gaps and watering was less of a chore because what they did no use when watering stayed in the plastic as a water table to keep the compost moist ( at this point if your not sure how often to water toms you can put a few holes in the plastic 6" up the side of the bed so the water table will only get to 6" and then the extra will run away ) this way means less often watering as you can put a couple of gallons in at a time and no split toms due to lack of water, water twice a week on a wednesday just water and sunday water and feed.
hope this helps

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---) CARL (----
ILFRACOMBE
NORTH DEVON

a seed planted today makes a meal tomorrow!

www.freewebs.com/carlseawolf

now in blog form ! UPDATED 01 / 04 / 08

Oh a kindred spirit. I don't really know what I'm doing either even though I grew up with my father growing everything under the sun. Trial and error and this forum is great for us L platers. No doubt next year we will be imparting our new found knowledge to other newbies.

Bit like giant open topped grow bags then???

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

this year is my second year, and I have learned a lot since last year, just wish i could remember some of it lol, however, i'm already discovering that keeping notes/a diary of stuff done, how, when etc gets harder as the season gets busier. I keep referring back to last years notes and finding big gaps ! This year's much the same. At least i'm getting things on the blog fairly regularly, but the diary has gone to pot !

have a great time learning Cheffi.

Good tip carl to put the holes up from the bottom I will try that. I am setting up a raised bed for my cucumbers in the green house or
~ pause for thought~
maybe i'll put my toms in it decisions decisions.

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Denise xox

Learn from the mistakes of others because you'll never live long enough to make them all yourself.
-- Alfred E. Neumann
http://irchesterplot.blogspot.com

Can we get a link to the blog Mrs KP. Would love to have a peek.

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From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.

oops sorry, thought i had it in my signature .......


http://kaypeesplot.blogspot.com/

the ramblings of a crazy woman!

All change....after costing the price of tanalised wood I went to the Link a Bord website and discovered that it was possible to almost make a perfect bed to fit the side I want to cover. I decided to email a few questions to them. Within a few hours I had my reply and a phone number for any other queries. I decided to ring and discovered that they would cut, free of charge the exact length I wanted. So I have ordered a 247cm x 58cm x 30cm high raised bed and it's cost me £59.60 including a few extras like the support stretchers and delivery.
One of the reasons I decided to go with these are because of the environmental issue of using recycled plastics and also because I am useless at carpentry If we should ever move it will be easy to dismantle and take with also. Delivery is going to be 7-10 days as they are rushed at the moment but I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks for all the great info in previous posts

I've heard good things about Link a board, just would choke on £60 when i've plenty of spare pallets to knock up a bed if i needed one ........... which is probably why i'm using grow bags and the "knocker upper" doesn't seem to share my time scale ! Link board look nice as well, which is more than i can say for my pallet beds.

Interesting to note they cut to size as well. Very sensible !

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Catch up with my daily doings at http://kaypeesplot.blogspot.com/ and http://kaypeeslottie.blogspot.com/