Well it's taken me a year, but I finally have some raised beds in that I can use. Well nearly... I still need to fill three of them.
The bottom of the garden has always been wet, so I'm hoping this will aid drainage. I'm going for some high value crops in them. So far one is sea kale, and the other is strawberries. I've got some more strawberry plants coming as well. They've always been a fruit that I've struggled with, but I hope with a bit of effort we should get some this year and going forward. It's a bit easier with the children helping as well (and I'm sure they'll enjoy helping pick these).
I still have enough wood to put in a few more beds, but need to clear the area of weeds first - never a fun job in May!
Putting in the first six beds I filmed and made a short video on, hopefully interesting watching for some, mainly me knocking in nails!
If you could grow one perfect crop each year what would it be? Strawberries are high on my list!
In the past, I had trouble growing strawberries until I read about it being beneficial to use pine straw to mulch strawberries. We had a large pine tree, so it was easy to try by raking up a pile of pine straw and mulching my strawberries. It wasn't much of a scientific trial, pine straw might be hard to find for some people, and I can't guarantee it will work for anyone else, but it seems to work for me when I'm growing strawberries.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great tip - not sure we have much about unfortunately, but it may help someone else.
DeleteRaspberries or blackberries, I grow both in my garden, never enough, unlike you my growing space it tiny, so things which grow up is welcome. I grow my strawberries in a tower, the plants this spring are full of flowers.
ReplyDeleteI should imagine the strawberries in a tower is a great thing, helps keep the slugs away from them!
DeleteCelery is originally a marsh plant and loves water. Might be worth growing some in a damp area?
ReplyDeleteIt's not something I've grown before, I've grown the cutting celery herb which is great
DeleteI always have trouble with strawberries as well but I'm making a super effort this year with them in containers and covered with chicken wire to keep the blackbirds off. I might even try Rich's pine needles, we have plenty of those around here!
ReplyDeleteYeah the birds are a nightmare here for it. I'll have to get some more nets in I think.
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