Raised Beds

In between the showers

I welcome a heavy burst of rain for two reasons. One is that it gives me an opportunity to be in and out of doors, which stops me from doing too much in the garden. The other reason is that these short burst of rain are like a pressure washer, cleaning the driveway and saving me the bother of having to sweep up all of the conifer needles that seem to be dropping in abundance this year. I think the local council must like downpours too as it saves them having to go around and wash the pavements down, affording them more time to do the thankless task of filling in all the potholes that have yet again appeared on the roads. I’ve taken to giving some of them names. We have the Blackfarm Bully, the Cockhill Cruncher, Malin Mauler and watch out for the Cavern in Carndonagh, well you get the idea. I’m filling up a similar gaping hole today as I am out in between the downpours to add soil into the raised beds.

Settle down

Over the year, soil in raised beds settle, this is because of the microorganisms munching away at the organic bulking materials and general settling of the soil. We have one bed that needs to be boosted a lot as it is near to the hedge and gets starved of both nutrients and moisture in the summer. I was on the ball before the end of last year and spent a happy week sieving the topsoil ready for today. Sometimes I can be very organised.
My first job is to clear the bed. This isn’t a problem as the only things in there at present are a few one year old strawberry plants and some rogue creeping buttercups. The creeping buttercups come out without any effort. If I have a favourite weed that I enjoyed digging up, this would be it. The roots come out so cleanly. I have a container with plenty of drainage to place the strawberry plants into and I can decide where to put these later.

Patience

It’s handy to have clear beds to work on. I have other raised beds that need work but these have things planted in them. One bed has a selection of herbs growing so I might just leave them in place and mulch around them a bit with some compost, although I could do with digging up the parsley and replanting new as it’s two years old and getting a bit woody. I have another bed with broccoli and kale in it that will need attention at some stage. These edible spring plants are great but do stay in the soil a long time. If I am patient the beds will get a good top dress of topsoil and compost after the plants have gone to flower in mid spring. I might be impatient though and mulch around the stems of the plants to get the soil more or less ready for the new vegetable seedlings that will go straight in after I feed any surplus greens to the ever hungry guinea pigs- I’ll see how I feel after filling this one up.

Before Christmas I shovelled soil into old empty coal bags and stacked them neatly in a pile to use later. With the help of my wheelbarrow I am moving four bags at a time to the long bed. I put about 25kg of soil in each bag so they wouldn’t be too heavy to lift. I’ve filled bags of dry soil before thinking they weren’t too heavy but they soon double in weight when they get drenched with the rain. I throw the bags onto the bed and tip them upside down to shake out all of the soil. The bags go on, and on, and on. It’s amazing just how much soil a bed needs. After 16 bags I lose count and I can still see the original soil underneath. It’s going to take a few more until it’s ready.

Your raised beds

I have one very interesting piece of work to be getting on with inside when the downpours start. I am on the computer regularly putting together a brochure giving tips and advice about how to build and look after you own raised vegetable beds in Inishowen. It’s going to be of interest to new gardeners around the peninsula and even growers who fancy expanding their plots.
Do you have images of established raised beds? If so I would love to have some pictures of them to add to the pages. Also if you have large amounts of reclaimed or new wooden planks or good quality topsoil, please let me know and I can include you in the pages. I’m also looking for a bit of advertising sponsorship to pay for the printing costs, so if you are in the horticultural or building trade then please get in touch.
You can contact me through the gardening.ie e-mail address info@gardening.ie