You may already know what your soil type is – if you can see chalk lumps, then clearly it's chalk – but if not, you need to work this out. Try to use a different soil type to your own, a hybrid is ideal. This may be enough to fill them, but if not you'll need to import some soil. Get the edges in place and then dig out the topsoil from paths and place it on your beds. ![]() They don't last as long as solid wood (about five years) but look good. You can raise the bed with railway sleepers to make a horizontal frame, or use woven panels of chunky hazel or willow as we do. We've also found slugs and snails are less of a problem in our raised areas than they are on flat ground and the beds look ornamental. We need these on seriously vile and heavy clay at Perch Hill to help with topsoil depth and drainage raised beds are also invaluable for deepening thin topsoil on sand and chalk. If your topsoil is thin, this may mean building raised beds, a decision best made before you start your soil improvement programme. On chalk or sand, and often on clay, this can be very thin. Is there lots of rich black stuff and then a change to something different? Measure how much of the darker stuff you have. Look at the sides and the colour change as the pit goes deeper. If you have no idea what your soil is, dig a 17in-wide, 17in-deep soil profile pit – a smart name for a straight-sided hole. ![]() Some edible plants do fine without much fertility – carrots, for example, grow well in almost pure sand – but most do best in well-fed, rich soil that is well drained. For a perfect patch the soil should be freely drained, with plenty of organic material mixed in and a topsoil depth of about 1ft. Once you have a layout planned that suits your garden, you need to work on your soil, so find out what raw material you have before you start. In the late summer, you'll be doing another planting and need to record that on another sheet of tracing paper which can be attached over the top of the last – it's a good idea to do this every year as a belt and braces way of avoiding planting anything in the same spot in under four years. Then attach a sheet of tracing paper over the design so that you can record exactly what goes where each season. One final thing on the design – draw out the basic plan on a sheet of paper with a thick black pen. You'll need a couple of hours a week from March until August – the busiest months – to keep a 10ft x 13ft patch sown, planted up, picked and looking pristine. It's rare for someone to think their patch is too big, but be realistic in terms of time and maintenance. The more space overall you can give to your veg patch, the more variety and abundance you'll produce. Tomatoes and cucumbers can be grown in pots, or in the ground against a sunny, sheltered south or west-facing wall, or in a greenhouse if you have one. Beware, mint and horseradish are very invasive and their roots quickly romp away, so enclose them in a deep, submerged pot. Perennial plants such as mint, horseradish, rhubarb and tarragon, and the shrubs rosemary, sage and bay, go permanently into any edge beds if you have space there. If you have the space, the wider the paths the better. ![]() Anything narrower will be obliterated as plants grow. Make the beds as big as possible and the paths can be temporary trodden earth or shingle, or permanent brick or stone. ![]() You can then rotate your productive plants from one year and one area to another, avoiding putting the same plant into the same soil again for four years and hence preventing a build-up of pests and diseases. The four beds are then allocated to different plant groups: one for roots, subdivided between new potatoes, beetroot and carrots (the three most rewarding and delicious roots) one for things like beans and peas (which gardeners call legumes) one for salad and herbs, including the brassicas (which means cabbage relatives), rocket, mizuna, mustard and radishes one for a hotchpotch of things such as courgettes, sweetcorn and leafy greens, chard, kale and spinach. With your bit of garden cleared and ready for a mini vegetable patch (see starting a vegetable garden from scratch), it's time to lay out your plot and create a structure that looks good and produces delicious food.Įven a small patch should be divided into four areas, ideally four quadrants with a cross of paths, with a small, round central bed if you have the space in which you could grow a tepee of sweet peas.
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