Sunday, March 04, 2007




Now you can see the raised beds once they have been painted! and covered in netting to stop the local cats! The bed on the right shows what "square foot planting" is all about - build your bed then mark out each square foot - I am trying to get something stronger to mark out the grid - in the book (by Mel Bartholomew) he uses old venetian blinds but can I find any? Not in any skips I see!! Once you have marked out your bed you then plant a different crop in each square so if your clever you can confuse things like the carrot fly by planting onions in front!
You can just about see a bamboo trellis that I've made to grow mangetout peas up - they were lovely last year nice enough to just pick and eat straight away or you could stir - fry them - lovely!!
I still don't know whether to gravel the front of the beds or leave the grass? What do you think? Gravel would be easier but I have a bird table and lots of birds coming into the garden (robins, blue tits, blackbirds etc) which feed from the table and drop seed! and eat worms from the grass which they wouldn't be able to if I covered it in gravel. Anyway, any ideas would be most welcome!

4 comments:

RUTH said...

The beds are looking good...only a few months and they will be full I bet. Gravel can be a bit of a cats toilet but at least you dont have to mow it. I think it important to attract the birs though so maybe I'd stick to the grass...(says she who has none at all!)

Margaret said...

Hi,

This is just my second year of growing my own, previously, always bought from Garden Centers.

I've been keeping a diary but have decided this year to have a blog.

Came on line to check out Garden blogs to see what they're like and came across yours. Really enjoyed it and will be returning.

Happy Gardening, Margaret.

MrBrownThumb said...

Looks like you have your beds ready. I'm thinking of doing some small ones like yours this year for a couple of veggies. Nice blog.

genuisscuffy said...

Thanks for the comments - I'm really looking forward to being in the garden this year - I will try and keep the blog up to date!