[sarah-king]

I am finally having my raised beds finished this week  after a long wait!!!... they are build from breeze blocks... i already have one full and planted in it onions, mini iceberg, carrots and beetroot (all are just comming through) oh and a small row of mangetout (more to go in this week)

My question is what should i fill my 2 new beds with (ie topsoil or compost) and what veggies can i plant in next couple of weeks..?

I have a mini plastic greenhouse thing with a few bits in and also have some leeks on the cold toilet windowcill... I have toms, courgettes and peppers in pots but i have some large pots for these... and my potatoes are in large planters (with the last few to go in this week)...  i have seeds for about everything as i used to have an allotment but unsure as what will grow best in raised bed...
Thanks

[blackbob]

I am finally having my raised beds finished this week  after a long wait!!!... they are build from breeze blocks... i already have one full and planted in it onions, mini iceberg, carrots and beetroot (all are just comming through) oh and a small row of mangetout (more to go in this week)

My question is what should i fill my 2 new beds with (ie topsoil or compost) and what veggies can i plant in next couple of weeks..?

I have a mini plastic greenhouse thing with a few bits in and also have some leeks on the cold toilet windowcill... I have toms, courgettes and peppers in pots but i have some large pots for these... and my potatoes are in large planters (with the last few to go in this week)...  i have seeds for about everything as i used to have an allotment but unsure as what will grow best in raised bed...
Thanks

fill the with the best gear you can afford.then get ya carrots and  other root crops in lol.
have fun thats the main thing.

[Aunt Sally]

I've just built a raised bed and filled it with a ton and a half of home made compost and well rotted manure.  I'm using it for salads this year and I think the lettuces should be six feet tall and the radishes as big as melons  

[sclarke624]

I filled my first one with compost and will be filling my new ones with this.  Its £2.99 a bag for 75ltrs at my local independant garden centre (Brick kiln).  Plus one bag of farmyard manure.  That first bed has been fine for the last three or four years, but I have to say someone the OH knows who went to college for garden wotsiting, said it won't have any substance and you can't do that blah blah blah.  Worked for me.  And at that price it was cheapest.  At the end of planting each year I put in chicken poo pellets.

PS correct me if I am wrong ..but carrots don't like fresh compost or manure they fork into odd shapes.  May want to bear that in mind for your new beds.  Fine to eat difficult if you want to peel them.

PPS oh and how about a lovely jubilee strawberry bed in one of the new beds.  Some Kohl Rabbi (if you like it YUK!, radishes, self blanching celery (easier than trench).

[blackbob]

I filled my first one with compost and will be filling my new ones with this.  Its £2.99 a bag for 75ltrs at my local independant garden centre (Brick kiln).  Plus one bag of farmyard manure.  That first bed has been fine for the last three or four years, but I have to say someone the OH knows who went to college for garden wotsiting, said it won't have any substance and you can't do that blah blah blah.  Worked for me.  And at that price it was cheapest.  At the end of planting each year I put in chicken poo pellets.

PS correct me if I am wrong ..but carrots don't like fresh compost or manure they fork into odd shapes.  May want to bear that in mind for your new beds.  Fine to eat difficult if you want to peel them.

yeah they dont like fresh muck at all.growing in raised beds is a whole new learning curve compared to ground level.but the one thing i'm finding out is it's much easier on the back,so that'll do me 

[sclarke624]

yeah they dont like fresh muck at all.growing in raised beds is a whole new learning curve compared to ground level.but the one thing i'm finding out is it's much easier on the back,so that'll do me 

I'm with you there blackbob, my new ones are 2ft high.  18" misses the dog watering them and the extra 6" for my back.  LOL.

[blackbob]

yeah they dont like fresh muck at all.growing in raised beds is a whole new learning curve compared to ground level.but the one thing i'm finding out is it's much easier on the back,so that'll do me 

I'm with you there blackbob, my new ones are 2ft high.  18" misses the dog watering them and the extra 6" for my back.  LOL.

dogs watering lol,forgot about that.
only thing i will do in future when i make some more (scaffold boards 4ft wide) is that i will line the bottoms with rabbit netting.
the moles are having a field day running the straight edges in the onion beds.

[sclarke624]

Oh and calabrese (the proper name for what supermarkets call broccoli) or any sort of broccoli.  Check starting off times, but think still time as mine are still seedling size.  The only thing with calabrese and broccoli is though, you will have to put enviromesh over them and not resting on the plant either, as cabbage whites lay their eggs on them and nasty green caterpillars stuff their faces on your calabrese.  Enviromesh has the tiny tiny holes.  But as you have had an allotment you probably already know that LOL.

[compostqueen]

I'd start off with filling it with veg scraps from the kitchen, grass mowings, hen poo, animal manure which is usually free from somewhere, old compost from last year's bedding, leaf mould (which everyone should make  ) and garden soil pinched from elsewhere in the garden  Oh and sand and bonfire ash could go in. Basically everything that's free 

[sarah-king]

Thanks all :-)  Hopefully when they arefinished ill post some piccys 

[unconcerned]

I've just built a raised bed and filled it with a ton and a half of home made compost and well rotted manure.  I'm using it for salads this year and I think the lettuces should be six feet tall and the radishes as big as melons  

I have five out back and have usually a mix of topsoil and poo in first year. Always worked well for Peas and beans then use that for my carrots etc the second year

[argaric]

I have created two new raised beds this year using floorboards from a house that was being done up. They are about 12" high and I dug out a spade depths of soil from the paths in between the beds and mixed this with compost from Wickes (4 bags £12 good quality) and added well rooted muck.
This means that from my sunken paths my beds appear 2' high 

[Trikidiki]

yeah they dont like fresh muck at all.growing in raised beds is a whole new learning curve compared to ground level.but the one thing i'm finding out is it's much easier on the back,so that'll do me 

I'm with you there blackbob, my new ones are 2ft high.  18" misses the dog watering them and the extra 6" for my back.  LOL.

Have a bitch instead of a dog and you don't need to raise the beds so high.