planting & link-a-bord

planting & link-a-bord

I am no expert as I only started gardening last year. I have also started using raised beds and intend to make a compost mix for carrots using a mix of coir, sharp sand, multi-purpose compost(I haven't got any home made yet) and sieved topsoil. Got the info from a retired guy who used to have an allotment. He said a pailful of each with a cup of bone meal/blood meal would be fine. For other plants he advises much smaller amount of sharp sand, more compost, leafmould and perhaps a sprinkling of lime. I plan to use the lighter fleece over the carrots.

Thanks.
When do you intend to plant the carrots ? cover from the start ?

I am doing an experiment. I plan to grow some in loo rolls starting early March in a cold frame. I am then going to sow some direct in late March and continue with sowing every two weeks or so till the end of June. Well, thats the plan! I think I'll keep them covered unless it gets very hot. I think that here in Kent I can start earlier and go later than the seed packets say so I am just going to try and see how it goes.

Just looked at the Vegetable Sowing and Harvesting Times Chart in the leeks and parsnips ground hogger thread just below yours and it is suggesting that you can sow carrots outside in February

Just spotted exactly those threads myself...!

You can grow tumbling toms in containers and even hanging basket, no need to use up limited space from your raised bed.

You can easily use pots for growing chillies anywhere from 6" to 12" size pots, again not necessary to use up your precious bed space.

I think about summer time upto Oct or even November for all the Brassica family of vegetables you're planning on growing (including your Calabrese). The pest is actually a white butterfly that lay eggs on your Brassica vegetables so you really need to cover with very fine netting or even fleece.

If you follow the other threads, some of us have started sowing hot and sweet peppers etc etc etc. Just check them out or search for old threads with vegetable of your query or even Google search.

Mine had a mixture of good quality garden soil, home made compost, some sand, some bonfire ash...up to you what you can get your hands but you need to 'prepare' the soil to make sure they're right for the vegetables you're growing bearing in mind that Root and Onion vegetable don't particularly need rich soil but Brassica do. Best to get yourself a book.

Just check out numerous seeds suppliers on the Net. Use Google search.

Planting & Link a bord

Hi there,

I'm no expert bit I have 2 link-a-bord raised beds on my plot, a small 1 meter job and a big 2 meter one with hoops attached for fleece, net etc.

I filled my with a combination of old grow bag soil, my own compost and some nice bought top soil (only a small amount was needed so too expensive). I have used my to grow salad crops, turnips, carrots, beetroots, sweetpeas, infact anything!

You can get those rainbow carrots from any garden centre now as Thompsons and Suttons sell them. Also a company called 'Plantsofdistinction' which you can find on line sell them too. My mum grew them last year in a pot in her garden and they tasted great despite their weird colours.

Pyewacket

Hi Pyewacket

I started my 3 x 5ft by 4ft raised beds last april. The one I grow carrots, onions, spinach, beetroot and salads in I put a mix of multipurpose compost and topsoil but no manure as carrots don't like this. As the veg is harvested I add more compost to put the nutrients back in the bed for the next crop.

I bought some Environmesh which is very fine netting and have kept this on over the 2 raised beds since april last year and put fleece over the top of that only on the severe frost warning days (there hasn't been many yet). My 'James scarlet intermediate' variety of carrots were the most successful as they were quite large. Autumn king carrot of which i have some in the ground now are smaller but still tasty.

Also a tip with growing lettuces, get some slug protection in advance as they did get in under my netting with their slime and my first lot of lettuces were destroyed by them. I've heard they don't like red lettuce as much so i'm going for that option this year!

raised bed addiction

I think I've really caught the raised bed addiction in my garden. We live in rented property so have to be a little careful about digging up too much of the 'lawn'. I have dug a small vegetable patch but have to say it doesn't produce a great deal, I think the soil isn't very good. We have added our own compost and chicken pellet manure but it still struggles to produce much and is certainly not good for carrots or beetroot.

So last year I got my partner to make me a raised bed from pressure treated outdoor wood, we priced up a link board one but found we could make one deeper for less. Last years raised bed was 1.2m square and about 60cm high. We filled it with old grow bag contents and our own compost but it still wasn't very good for carrots or beetroot.

I persuaded him to make me some more recently and they are waiting to be filled. I think it's going to cost me a fortune, we have last years grow bags and hopefully some useable compost on our bins but we made a bit of an error. I asked for another the same size as last year, we bought the wood, took it home and he put it all together. I went outside to help him position it, he seemed not to have noticed the boards were a lot wider than last time it stood well over a metre high I'd have had to stand on steps to plant anything.

So being ever practical he cut it in two making one box 1.2m square and 3 planks high and the other 1.2m square and 2 planks high. Add to that the box he made me for my courgettes etc which is 1.2m x .6m and 60cm high. I think I need a lot of compost etc.

Anyone know the cheapest way to buy?

I wonder if someone can help. Just about to purchase a 1m x 2m link a board kit and wanted for budget reasons to stick to a single level, but I want to grow carrots. Is the 15cm depth enough or do I need to purchase a double height bed?

To SMS6, try lining your raised bed with a goodly layer of rotting vegetables,peelings etc. and anything else you would put on your compost bin. Cover it with any compost (or soil if you don't have any and in around 3 months you should have an area fit to put seeds or plants in. Same principle as a compost trench. Never tried this as I don't have any raised beds (yet) but I have a compost trench as well as compost bins and heaps every year. Don't know what other folk think.

dfarnley, it depends on whether you are placing the link a bord on concrete or on soil. My single height went straight onto grass, lightly dug over (due to a fractured wrist at the time so one handed!!) and topped with a mixture of old compost bags, a couple of bags of shop bought topsoil and added home made compost. Worked very well for salad, beetroot an even sweetcorn which were very tall and sturdy. And, by the way, welcome to the vine!!Sanjo

Thanks for the welcome. I am planning on putting it straight onto a patio as my garden is taken up with kids toys!!

dfearnley, if you are ging to grow only carrots, then you would need two boards deep. If you are only planting SOME carrots, you could use other things to raise the height of the board just where you want carrots.

However, I personally think that link a board is one of the most unholy rip offs around at the moment. Even if you bought one tanalised plank of wood at B&Q and got it cut up into 4 and bought a hammer and some nails, it would still save you 3/4 of the price of one link a board. Sorry if you have no handyskills or car - but it really annoys me how much they cost. We bought the wood for our first raised beds for 50p each from a reclaim yard so that's £2 per bed. For the same area link a board were charging £35.