Newbie and her raised beds

amandaandherveg · « **on:** April 06, 2008, 17:41 »

Hello everyone

Just finished renovating an old house, took a year including sorting out the large garden. I've built 7 raised beds (1.2m x 1.2m) at the bottom of the garden to grow assorted veg. I'm going to order some top soil this week. Can you folks advise what I need to mix it with (free chicken poo from the neighbour if that was any good?).

compostqueen · « **Reply #1 on:** April 06, 2008, 22:10 »

chicken poo is fab but it is too strong to use fresh and has to be aged. You could pile it up or add it to the compost heap

I like to add home made compost and grit sand to my heavy allotmnent soil which I don't dig so it needs a bit of help, oh manure too. I rot leaves down to make leaf mould and that's good to add to raised bed soil

amandaandherveg · « **Reply #2 on:** April 06, 2008, 22:17 »

I don't have a compost heap organised yet :shock: so I'll have to source something in the meantime. Any suggestions? Lots of stables around here, how much would I need to add to my raised beds to use them this year without burning the veg?

jack russell · « **Reply #3 on:** April 06, 2008, 22:29 »

hi there you can check your local council to see if they have a composting scheme going on, and if they don't tell them to get there finger out and get with the programme

woodburner · « **Reply #4 on:** April 06, 2008, 23:35 »

Quote from: "amandaandherveg"

I don't have a compost heap organised yet :shock: so I'll have to source something in the meantime. Any suggestions? Lots of stables around here, how much would I need to add to my raised beds to use them this year without burning the veg?

Same problem as with chicken poo, needs to rot for a while, unless you're lucky and can get it already well rotted. I know a place but it's half an hour's drive away :shock:

vegmandan · « **Reply #5 on:** April 07, 2008, 00:16 »

If the Topsoil you are getting is decent stuff then you should be OK this year..just add a bit of fertilizer of your choice and then in autumn add some horse muck,compost or cow muck and dig it in and let the worms do the work.

amandaandherveg · « **Reply #6 on:** April 07, 2008, 14:08 »

That's excellent, hoped someone was going to tell me that. Will get a compost bin/heap on the go asap.

nobby · « **Reply #7 on:** April 07, 2008, 14:53 »

get a cople of tone of compost from your locel olthoroty its cheper than bags and perfict for rased beds

ssray · « **Reply #8 on:** April 07, 2008, 16:41 »

locel olthoroty

?
Whats one of them then?
ray

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Newbie and her raised beds

vegmandan