Raised Garden Beds Give Vegetable Growing A Lift
April 3rd, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed
Raised garden beds are exactly what it says on the packet. The raised beds can be made any height you like - so long as they are made sturdy enough. This may help someone to enjoy some vegetable growing who is having health issues such as bending over.
Raised garden beds are also a perfect solution for the keen vegetable gardener who has limited space for planting. This system of vegetable growing is a simple way of improving the health and productivity of your vegetable garden while bringing the soil up to a comfortable level to work at.
Raised beds have the added benefit of good soil structure and drainage - because you need not walk on or dig it, which enables the soil to warm up earlier in the season, giving you a head start on spring. This system is especially handy for people who live in areas with poor or shallow soil.
Making your soil a better medium to plant your vegetables into is very important and is much easier to control in a raised garden bed. Gardening and especially vegetable gardening needs the regular adding of organic matter such as composted manure or garden waste compost to ensure a constant supply of nutrients and trace elements to the bed.
My own beds (see photo below) are 1.2M(4ft) wide, 2.7M(9ft) long and 30cm(12″) deep. This is the maximum width to be able to reach to the centre of the raised bed from both sides easily, and to be able to walk around the beds without walking to far. The depth can be anything from 15cm(6″) upwards as long as the side structures can cope.
I dug over the ground first before erecting the sides and then topped them up with compost bought in bulk from our local rubbish collecting company. This company composts all the waste it removes from households - all waste that can be composted of course.
The picture below shows one of my raised garden beds thriving with last years crops, which were happily eaten throughout the late summer and autumn/fall.
Don`t forget to leave a comment or relate your own experience.
Happy vegetable growing.
Click here to visit my vegetable garden guide website.
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Now More Vegetable Garden Seed Is Sold Than Flower
March 22nd, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed
I came across this interesting online article from the Guardian newspaper today relating to vegetable gardening and thought this will definitely interest you.
I am not surprised at the upshot of what the report tells us as I have seen this trend growing over several years. Folk are concerned about what chemicals are put on the food they eat and current increases in the cost of living adds to the `grow your own` phenomena.
The thrill of walking into your vegetable garden or on to your allotment and picking fresh fruit and vegetables is an experience that is hard to match for shear wholesome pleasure. So! long may this growing vegetables trend continue.
Read the article here:
www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/mar/22/food.gardens
Laurence
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Growing Broccoli To Fill The Spring Veg Gap
March 20th, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed
Growing broccoli is well worth the wait of a long growing season. Late winter and early spring is a time of year when harvesting vegetables from your veg patch becomes a bit of a rare occurance. So several plants of purple sprouting broccoli are very welcome as you should be able to harvest these colourful and delicious spears of purple florets over several weeks, usually from about the end of January for later varieties.
Another advantage of growing broccoli is the fact that if you can get past the late summer catterpillar attack then apart from staking these plants so they don`t fall over, there is not a lot one needs to do except wait.
Sow your seeds into a seed bed or in trays indoors (greenhouse or window sill) during March/April time and once big enough to handle prick out the seedlings grown in trays into 3″ pots of potting compost. Transplant the growing broccoli when they are about 8-10″ tall.
Seeds sown into a seed bed leave to grow until about 8-10″ tall.
Once at the approximate height to transplant then move them to their permanent bed with as much of the soil still around the roots that is possible. This will not be a problem with pot grown broccoli.
To continue learning how to grow broccoli you will find lots more tips and pictures by visiting
http://www.vegetable-garden-guide.com/growing-broccoli.html
Happy growing.
Laurence
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