[Parsley The Lion]

Being a soft southern jess I had better stick to flowers and truggs then really! :oops:

Only kiddin, I wear baby blue wellies so I can't really talk My best advice is buy one book about allotments (Carol Klein maybe) and one about veg (the Hessayon one is good) and try the ideas in there, at first I read loads of books and got horribly confused in the end because the advice differs in each book you read. I spent so long dithering I almost forgot to get digging

[MoreWhisky]

Not wanting to hyjack the thread but can someone please explain to me what 'double digging' is as not heard that saying before please?  :oops:

[peapod]

as I already said parsley somewhere else you are one lucky lady   , I dont know anyone else anywhere who gets the free supplies you do. Its a choice you luckily can make where others financially cant, including me at the mo  :cry:
I have two parts of my plot that were waterlogged this year (please not this year!) so drains or raised beds are a possible necessity for me from now on. If I had the choice I would do what shaun's doing, but I like the look and the ease of raised beds once they are set up and productive

[Parsley The Lion]

Do you have any photos of your handywork Parsley??

nope sorry, I never remember to take my camera, too busy remembering to take coffee and chocolate I will take some snaps next time I'm down there. I got my bed info from "The Vegetable Expert" book, was definitely worth measuring out, nothing worse than shuffling between the beds, you need wriggle room.  Thinking about it, the only pics I have are on my phone and they are all snaps of vegetable omlettes and my pink cauli next to white cauli because I imagine everyone at work will find it as cool as I do (they don't!)

[Parsley The Lion]

I have two parts of my plot that were waterlogged this year (please not this year!) so drains or raised beds are a possible necessity for me from now on. If I had the choice I would do what shaun's doing, but I like the look and the ease of raised beds once they are set up and productive

I must admit the first thing I did was dig a drain around the edge of the plot (down to the clay layer) then got my neighbours to do the same so the water runs from the top of my plot, down the channels then onto their plot and on and on until it goes into a nearby field or into the wildlife area. It has worked but was a miserable job, tried doing a soakaway the first time but that was rubbish

[Parsley The Lion]

Not wanting to hyjack the thread but can someone please explain to me what 'double digging' is as not heard that saying before please?  :oops:

Mines a jamesons I may be wrong but my understanding is that you dig out a trench and remove the topsoil which you put to one side. You then folk over the bottom of the trench and throw in a bit of organic matter or something. Then in parallel to the 1st trench you dig another identical trench but this time as you remove the soil, you throw it into trench 1. Then you folk over trench 2, add organic matter, then dig trench 3 and put that soil into trench 2. You do that until the end of the plot then at the end the stuff you put aside from trench 1 goes in the final trench. Sorry if that is wrong  

[peapod]

I must admit the first thing I did was dig a drain around the edge of the plot (down to the clay layer) then got my neighbours to do the same so the water runs from the top of my plot, down the channels then onto their plot and on and on until it goes into a nearby field or into the wildlife area. It has worked but was a miserable job, tried doing a soakaway the first time but that was rubbish

If the torrential rain happens this year (NO!! we've earned SUN!) then drains will be the first way to go. I also lucky that Ive got my OH who is a dabhandyman who enjoys doing this type of work and leaves me to the important job of growing veg   If that doesnt work then raised beds are my final option. I like them, but Im enough of a newby to still want to re-arrange my plot easily.
But I forgot to add, making cages/fleece barriers is so much easier with a raised bed system.

[Parsley The Lion]

A handy OH is the best thing you could have, my OH is keen in spurts but luckily I love digging and it gets rid of the bingo wings  

[woodburner]

If you have clay soil or for some other reason you have drainage or flooding problems it is a good idea to raise the beds somehow, it doesn't have to involve wood though. 'Lazy beds' are a traditional scottish method.
As mentioned before, double digging and/or drainage ditches also help.

If you simply want to go 'no-dig', the beds don't have to be raised (with or without wood) at all.  

[Minty]

When we took our plot on last June we started with raised beds and was going to do the whole plot with them but have since changed my mind because I worked out all the wasted growing area with all those path's and also noticed the amount of slugs that were living in the edges of both the path's and bed's by the wood.

We do have claggy soil but we have double dug the bad area's and mixed in plenty of leaf litter,manure etc and the soil is really improving very quickly.

[hectic]

Another quick question about raised beds if I may? There is a patch of ground at the bottom of the garden that I am seriously considering putting raised beds onto as the soil quality is pretty dodo to be honest. The previous owner put shingle over the existing soil I guess to prevent weeds (they seem to love it tho!) and for prettiness value.

I probably have 2 choices, to dig the whole lot out and remove as much of the top soil and shingle as poss then get some nice top soil in and look at planting on that or to turn it over as much as poss and put in raised beds (1 or 2 layers?)

We have fairly sandy soil here which is easy to turn and I presume grow into.

Any suggestions which would be the best course of action please?

Many thanks  

[Cheshire Phill]

Shaun/Photoboy - don't you think Parsley has put enough photos on the site already? Wow, Winsford looking better than I remember it from going to footy matches there a few years back (Parsley, is that really you?)...(soz, that'll be my age!!!)

Actually, I'm doing some raised beds (cheap railway sleepers) and some a bit more like Shaun's (field) style...live and let live everyone, its all good as long as theres good soil and plenty of nutrients...

Shaun - what rotavator do you use? Am thinking of buying one meself...

Parsley, well done for the Northeners thing - I was trying to fork my plot over at -4C over Christmas, but after jumping on the fork for a bit, I went to the pub instead...eee its grim oop North!!

Phill

[shaun]

hey up phil   my main machine is a howard 350,you can still buy them mostly on e-bay,if you are looking for something that was built to last then this is the machine
heres a couple of vids of her in action

[woodburner]

Another quick question about raised beds if I may? There is a patch of ground at the bottom of the garden that I am seriously considering putting raised beds onto as the soil quality is pretty dodo to be honest. The previous owner put shingle over the existing soil I guess to prevent weeds (they seem to love it tho!) and for prettiness value.

I probably have 2 choices, to dig the whole lot out and remove as much of the top soil and shingle as poss then get some nice top soil in and look at planting on that or to turn it over as much as poss and put in raised beds (1 or 2 layers?)

We have fairly sandy soil here which is easy to turn and I presume grow into.

Any suggestions which would be the best course of action please?

Many thanks  

If the shingle is a decent size, I'd make a seive, with some suitable weldmeshraddle the top few inches of soil with it and and reuse the shingle on paths. Lots of organic matter imporves all soil types. I would think raised beds of any sort are a waste of time on light soil, you could still go no dig though. It's not just a matter of area to plant, the improved soil conditions with no digiing (or rather, and more importantly, no treading) give better crops.
I suspect that there is less point in no-dig for sandy soil, as it's less prone to compaction and is better draining than heavy soils, and is easier to work anyway. There is still some benefit to be gained from not disturbing the soil layers massively, if you are growing organically.

[Parsley The Lion]

When we took our plot on last June we started with raised beds and was going to do the whole plot with them but have since changed my mind because I worked out all the wasted growing area

If you do go for raised you really need to throw the spacing rules out of the window, you can merrily shove loads into a bed and it has been shown time and again that you do not lose yield this way