Help me Plan a 4.5 x 1.6m Raised Bed!

Discussion in 'Planting, growing, nurturing Plants' started by russell_c_cook, Aug 4, 2015.

  1. russell_c_cook

    russell_c_cook Junior Member

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    Hi everyone,

    It looks as though soon I'll be able to start a raised bed at Northey Street City Farm in Brisbane, Australia.

    I was hoping to get some ideas about how to best manage the area I have. Especially, I've heard a lot about not planting crops from one family consecutively.

    I was thinking of dividing the bed into say 4 equal parts (perhaps with thin lines of lemon balm as demarcation lines). For the first planting:

    1 area carrots (umbelliferae family)
    1 area tatsoi and radish(brassicaceae family)
    1 area cherry tomatoes (solanaceae family)
    1 area blue lake bush beans (leguminosae family)

    As I go along, I plan to note which plants have been in which area and avoid the same family twice in a row.

    As an additional note, I believe the beds will be lined with hessian or some material so plants will not have much access to the soil below (due to concerns about lead contamination in believe).

    Any ideas about growing compost crops would also be interesting, even if this might have to be done elsewhere where such plants can have access to deep soil.

    Any comments/pointers in the right direction would be great :)
     
  2. Cornonthecob

    Cornonthecob Junior Member

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    Hi Russel, sounds exciting! You can grow an awful amount of vege's in an area that size :)
    I'm not sure how long your 'thin lines' of lemon balm will last before they try to take over the whole bed though. Keep an eye on it (lots of lemon balm tea :) )
    Look at what sort of feeders your intended vege's are....heavy feeders first followed by the lighter ones perhaps? Then when the area is depleted put in something that will help to feed the soil/fix nitrogen etc.
    Remember if you mixed different types of vege's up in your bed you may have less trouble with pests (depending on what other people are doing). One area of carrots will make for a LOT of carrots at the one time. Carrots are my snack food by choice but even I would balk at so many in a short timeframe....maybe subdivide the bed into smaller blocks? One for carrots, three for tomatoes etc...be mindful of your 'hopeful' yield....you have the option of growing more types of vege's, just obviously less of them. But if you have seedlings ready to go as you harvest you'll always have carrots on the go :)
    Of course a lot will depend on what you like and if you can barter the excess. I'd be very surprised if there wasn't a LETS group operating down that way.
    Exciting times! Have fun, grow lots of yummy fresh natural food! :)
     
  3. russell_c_cook

    russell_c_cook Junior Member

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    Thanks, Cornonthecob.

    I've just gone back to John Jeavons "How to Grow More Vegetables" and he suggests one option can be to divide a bed into a number of heavy feeder, heavy giver and light feeder sections. Heavy giver I think is synonymous with legumes.

    So, perhaps a good idea could be to divide the plot into 6 sections (each 160 x 77cm) in the pattern HF/HG/LF/HF/HG/LF.

    Thus the three different plants will all be sharing root space, and the soil of the bed will avoid any localised drawdown of nutrients in the heavy feeder sections.

    Also, would the sharing of root space help to avoid the build up of harmful nematodes?

    Any thoughts would be great :)
     
  4. dreuky

    dreuky Junior Member

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    May only be me I over many years of veggie growing I've always found carrots won't grow in soil that has lots of compost or manure. So much so that I've always kept one patch of the garden just for carrots & all I add is lime & use it over & over & every year the carrots get better.I know that is supposed to be a real no no but that is the only way I've got carrots to grow. In rich soil most seeds don't sprout & the few that do grow all twisted & multi branched
     
  5. Cornonthecob

    Cornonthecob Junior Member

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    Carrots certainly don't require much, throw them in at the very beginning or the end of the cycle. Carrots can be tricky to start with, I usually put a small frame up over the bed once I've sown seed and cover it with shade cloth or something similair.
    Russel, you'll be surprised at how much you can fit into the space you have.You may be able to plant slow growers close to fast growers....harvest the fast growers to make room for the slower ones to finish growing.
    I like the idea of six sections.....you'll get into a routine and soon work out how/what/when :)
    Keep records and you'll see how much you harvest. If you don't eat it return it to the bed :)
     
  6. russell_c_cook

    russell_c_cook Junior Member

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    Hi guys,

    Thanks for the tips, I'll treat the carrots as a light feeder in my plans. (I put it in my plan here as I want a member of that family which I regularly eat!)

    My current planting plan is to divide the bed into six 130mm x 77mm patches. My plan for vegetables is this (in this order with onions in section 1, carrots in section 2 etc):

    Onions
    Carrots
    Bush Beans
    Radishes/Tatsoi
    Cherry Tomatoes
    Bush Beans

    I plan to use the following principles to guide my planting/selection of crops:

    1. I plan to treat each bed as a field, so to speak. So, since the bush beans in section 3 are a heavy giver of nitrogen, I'll follow them in section 3 with a heavy feeder such as tomatoes. Then, follow the tomatoes with a light feeder such as carrots.

    2. If I plant heavy feeders consecutively in the same section, I'll fertilize that section before the second planting.

    3. I'll also keep bad companions apart. For example, I put one section between the onions and the bush beans in the plan above.

    4. I won't have one member of a family follow another directly into a section. So, I won't follow the tomatoes in section 5 with eggplants, or the onions in section 1 with leeks.

    A quick question: I think the bed is on a north-south axis, am I right that the taller plants should be towards the south end to avoid blocking the sun from shorter plants? And if the axis is east-west it doesn't really matter?

    Any comments are most welcome :)
     
  7. KJ Jabbo

    KJ Jabbo New Member

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    Hi Russell,

    Congratulations on your plot! It looks like you have a solid plan in place. I'd also add that it may make sense to have the soil tested, if you haven't already. Working to balance out the nutrient load the first couple of seasons can really go a long way. And compost. Don't forget compost and in the absence of compost, a high quality organic fertilizer.

    You are correct regarding your question on orientation, as best you can try to keep the taller plants at the south end of the bed. Here on on the other side of the equator, it is just the opposite. There might be some instances when a bit of shade can be helpful, though. If you are wanting a second or third crop of lettuces or other greens that don't tolerate the heat so well, you might choose to create yourself some shade. Make sense?

    If you are trying to eek out all the yield you can, you can always consider some vertical gardening elements. You may find of interest a blog post I wrote making use of cattle panels: https://www.greatgardengear.com/cattle-panels-for-vertical-gardening/ This concept can be readily adapted to a plot like yours.

    In any event, good luck and have fun!

    KJ
    [email protected]
    www.greatgardengear.com
     

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