Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Chatting => Equipment Shed => Topic started by: cadalot on December 23, 2013, 10:52
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I've been hunting around looking for weed control fabric - this year I got a load from the £1 shop but wanted to get a better grade of material for next year - I don't understand why they don't supply it in 1.2m wide strips to suite what everyone recommends the 1.2 or 4 foot wide beds that are commonly used?
Best I have found so far is one company selling 1.3m wide fabric 125gsm
All the others are 1m ,2m ,3m 3.3m or 4m wide. I suppose I could go for 4m wide and cut into 3 strips - but it would more convenient if they were supplied in standard bed width rolls
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Trouble is, there is no such thing as a standard bed :closedeyes:
On our site beds seem to vary between whole plot with a single path down the middle to those less than a metre wide and incredibly long, with every variation in between.
That's one of the things that makes it all so interesting, as all of those different shapes and sizes of bed produce decent crops ;)
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Trouble is, there is no such thing as a standard bed :closedeyes:
True beds can be made to any shape or size but the golden rule is you should always be able to reach the middle of the bed without staining or stepping on to the soil. I have a few books and watching TV and YouTube videos raised beds and beds of 1.2m are commonly recommended.
John Harrison - The Essential Allotment Guide Page 45 - 1.2m wide
Allotment Gardening for Dummies - Page 72 - 1.2m wide
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And indeed mine are that width, for one main reasons;
The timber we had was 2.4m in length and so 1.2m made a handy 'unit' The beds are mainly 3.6m long accordingly. I can also of course reach the middle without falling in ;)
Although this may be commonly recommended, many people choose other options, either through personal preference, maybe as inveterate double diggers and long-row growers, or through the size and shape of their overall growing area.
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My beds aren't raised or standard in size - not everybody's are.
They sell them in varoius sizes, cut them to fit your beds, same as I do - simples really ;)
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my beds come in row or two row widths, depending upon crop, generally less than 1m, but I dig over the whole plot and have new paths each year, generally the widest beds are my mixed pea and bean at about 3 foot, 5 rows of mixed pea and bean plants (3 main rows spaced a foot apart and two thinly planted rows between, plant in 4-6" spacing - cropped well this year
Grendel
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Trouble is, there is no such thing as a standard bed :closedeyes:
True beds can be made to any shape or size but the golden rule is you should always be able to reach the middle of the bed without staining...
Sorry - this had me giggling... I hope that never happens to me!