[mashbintater]

I thought you could grow beans in containers? I've got a runner bean planted at each end of an oval container with canes at the ready, I can can't I?  :?

[poultrygeist]

We did last year. Worked fine. But needs decent compost and lots of watering.

[Trillium]

The front yard could easily hold currant and gooseberry bushes (if you like them) without a lot of manure. Their first year is mostly root setting anyway, and surely you could afford a small bag of store compost to divide among all the holes for this year. Come fall, you could liberally mulch with any compost or manure you can find and winter rain will leach it down to the shallow roots. Like the others suggested, salad crops or herbs as underplantings for a few years would fill in the bare spots.

[mashbintater]

thanks poultrygiest, was bit worried there for a moment, nothing germinating yet mind, tiz a tad cold at mo tho"

[poultrygeist]

The front yard could easily hold currant and gooseberry bushes (if you like them) without a lot of manure. Their first year is mostly root setting anyway, and surely you could afford a small bag of store compost to divide among all the holes for this year. Come fall, you could liberally mulch with any compost or manure you can find and winter rain will leach it down to the shallow roots. Like the others suggested, salad crops or herbs as underplantings for a few years would fill in the bare spots.

The original idea was just to plant something for this season before I comitted to re-seeding but I'm now teetering on making it a more permanent feature. I love summer fruits and like to make as much land productive as we can manage. What bothers me is whether I'll be able to commit enough time time, effort and money (tight!) to do it justice and avoid it becoming an overgrown mess. I could go for annie's suggestion about the fresh manure beneath a layer of newspaper to protect teh roots. I've got a fair bit of horse manure I could lob in too. By next year it would be super-fertile !!
Need to give it some more thought but take action before the season really kick-starts.
Thanks for all suggestions.
Rob

[poultrygeist]

Quick update

It has been decided (I've been told ) that we will be mostly growing rainbow chard cos it's colourful, easy and we can feed the chooks with it as well as ourselves.

SO thanks for all suggestions. I'm still thinking about other things too and I'll get soem photos up later in the year when there's more than just dirt and hardcore to see.

Rob

[mumsy]

You needn't have asked us at all, seems like the decision was already made              
great suggestions though :!:

[poultrygeist]

I like to think I'm part of the planning and decision making process.  :roll:

It keeps me happy  :?

Might put a couple of suggestions into the mix though. Certainly like the idea of burying the fresh manure under newspaper for a 'slow burn'.
That would give us more options if we keep the bed for next year.

Just need to run out between downpours and prepare the ground.

Rob