Raised Beds Planning Help Advice

[craftymarie]

Thank you. Yes I LOVE courgettes - so good roasted Yum. Will look out for that variety then. I've been collecting lots of seed packets from magazines and also reduced ones at the garden centre so got around 50 or so packets of veggies collected. Might be a bit ambitious to try them all but will just do what I can manage.

I also love salad crops but unfortunately so do the slugs But as they don't need full sun, I could put those somewhere else. The area I've got for the raised beds can get quite fierce sun in the summer which is there for much of the day so salads might not like that location too much.

Good idea to focus on expensive items and also more unusual varieties of things that will be hard to buy in the shops. Looking forward to trying the yellow beetroot as we love eating it but the red stuff is lethal with the stains it leaves.

[dilettante]

Slugs are the bane of my life, and they do seem to like hanging around raised beds frustratingly. I used to give the old torch and bucket of water a go, but the b******s just climbed out. I can't cut them up, it's too grim. Beer traps worked somewhat, but I don't think they get very good results. I've ended up using those iron phosphate pellets, kept dry under a pot or something. They seem to be super effective - as is digging up the soil and finding the eggs to leave out on the surface or squish, but that's far more work.

[craftymarie]

I have a bit of a love/hate reaction to slugs and snails etc. I do find them fascinating and am always amazed about how ingenious they seem when it comes to hunting out the very best food to eat.

I just pick them off and pop them in the corner of the garden where the frogs like to hang out. I've found a few slugs drowned recently in the little frog pond and wondered if that had anything to do with the frogs or just an unhappy accident on the slugs part. Anyhow - need an army of frogs and a pet hedgehog or two wouldn't go amiss either.

[rary]

Hello Marie, I know that it is always recomended to make your raised beds 4ft. wide but I have found that my 6ft. wide raised bed needs less watering than the others at 4ft. as I think that the rain has a better chance of reaching the bed rather than being shed to the side by the veg. canopy, also at 6 ft. I can access the bed by working from each side when planting weeding etc. But whatever you do I wish you well as you seem to be very keen to grow your own. Pitty you dont live near me I would let you practice on my garden, infact if you are realy keen you, could pop up and do it.

[craftymarie]

Yes 4ft does always seem to be the recommended width so that's interesting that you prefer them wider. I guess everyone develops their own preference with experience and time.

He he, no I'm not one for traveling far (bit of a homebody) but how good would it be if more people did offer up the use of their gardens to those wanting to grow their own Especially with allotment waiting times.

[Bigmallly]

how good would it be if more people did offer up the use of their gardens to those wanting to grow their own Especially with allotment waiting times.

They do Marie:

Landshare - connecting growers to people with land to share.

[Bigmallly]

4 foot is the recommended width of a bed if you want to tend the bed without standing on it, otherwise if you want to walk on it or use planks then you can have it any width you choose.

[craftymarie]

I think it might help if I mark out some pretend beds in the garden to work out spacings - that way I can test how far I can comfortably stretch across the raised bed areas and also I want the spaces in-between big enough so I can kneel down. Then there needs to be room to shove netting or cloches on top and secure all round so better not make the pathway bits too narrow. So if I mark out with string I can walk round and get a feel for the sizing I guess.

I got away with not using a wheelbarrow this year - just lugged everything around by hand and used a bucket to carry stuff. If I do use one, it can be dumped at the end rather than trying to maneuver through some narrow walkways - that's what I'm thinking.

[Bigmallly]

Sounds like a perfect plan.

[dilettante]

I would love to have a pet hedgehog. I'm hoping I can encourage some frogs to hang around over the winter. I've seen a couple these last few months. Both times I've been on my allotment I've seen frogs, but also found hundreds of slug eggs in the soil, so I have no idea how well they're doing at controlling the slugs.

[spamvindaloo]

Looking forward to trying the yellow beetroot as we love eating it but the red stuff is lethal with the stains it leaves.

I grew golden and white beetroot this year. Neither of them bled but I thought them a bit bland compared to the strong beety taste I got from the red ones.

Beer traps worked somewhat, but I don't think they get very good results.

I found they worked reasonably well but nobody told me what slugs decomposing in beer smell like

[Bill HH]

As you are making several beds it is a good idea to make them all the same dimentions if you can, then you can stack one on top of the other for plants needing deeper beds (carrots etc).

[janzbro]

has anybody used the copper tape with any sucess

[Jungle Jane]

has anybody used the copper tape with any sucess

When I first used copper tape round my raised bed it worked really well,until the slugs/snails noticed they could slide from my grape vine,down into the raised bed,avoiding the wood completely.

[craftymarie]

Slugs seem to be very smart when it comes to food.

I had a lot less problems with slugs when I put my containers in the middle of the gravel drive during the summer. I only ended up with a few compared with constantly picking them out when the same containers were on the lawn.

The long term plan is to get the raised beds in and then remove all the grass from the bottom section of the garden and gravel it all. That way I can have a gravel base for the polly as well. I'm hoping that as well as making it less maintenance in terms of cutting around beds and things it will make it harder for the slugs - can only live in hope.