Author Topic: Where once there was grass, now there are raised beds!  (Read 11802 times)

Charlotte

  • Dissolute libertine
  • Here's to ol' D.H. Lawrence...
    • charlottebarnes.co.uk
Where once there was grass, now there are raised beds!
« on: 01 January, 2010, 02:38:05 pm »
We've just finished getting our garden ready for this year's growing.  Julian and I have spent the last couple of days making up some new raised beds and paving off an area of the garden to sit our new chicken house on.

The chooks arrive tomorrow  :smug:

Commercial, Editorial and PR Photographer - www.charlottebarnes.co.uk

Re: Where once there was grass, now there are raised beds!
« Reply #1 on: 01 January, 2010, 02:42:52 pm »
Yes, there's a notable absence of Liz/Julian in this photo... camera probably set up on auto....   Mmmh...

LEE

Re: Where once there was grass, now there are raised beds!
« Reply #2 on: 01 January, 2010, 02:51:44 pm »
I will be doing similar in a few weeks.

Re: Where once there was grass, now there are raised beds!
« Reply #3 on: 01 January, 2010, 03:01:05 pm »
I think there's room for a little pig or two like these in there...





Re: Where once there was grass, now there are raised beds!
« Reply #4 on: 01 January, 2010, 03:01:28 pm »
I will be doing similar in a few weeks.
Perhaps we should inform your local constabulary.
"A woman on a bicycle has all the world before her where to choose; she can go where she will, no man hindering." The Type-Writer Girl, 1897

Re: Where once there was grass, now there are raised beds!
« Reply #5 on: 01 January, 2010, 05:02:05 pm »
Yes, there's a notable absence of Liz/Julian in this photo... camera probably set up on auto....   Mmmh...

HHHhhhhhmmm.......
...
Also, unlike wood, a quick wipe with isopropyl alcohol will clean away all traces of blood and other bodily fluids.
...

Charlotte

  • Dissolute libertine
  • Here's to ol' D.H. Lawrence...
    • charlottebarnes.co.uk
Re: Where once there was grass, now there are raised beds!
« Reply #6 on: 01 January, 2010, 05:40:30 pm »
I think there's room for a little pig or two like these in there...

Bad fboab!  Plz to not tempt my cohab with such ideas  ::-)

As it is, she's read all of Hugh Fearlesslyeatitall's Big Book of Meaty Things and has registered an interest in raising a brace of Sus domestica within our grounds.  I've tried to tell her that our neighbours (not to mention Ealing Council) may take a dim view of this, but I still fear the day I get home from work to find a selection of even-toed ungulates running around the vegetable plot and my cohab sitting on the back step sharpening our kitchen knives with a glint in her eye...
Commercial, Editorial and PR Photographer - www.charlottebarnes.co.uk

Julian

  • samoture
Re: Where once there was grass, now there are raised beds!
« Reply #7 on: 01 January, 2010, 05:47:52 pm »
:D

Not until we have somewhere a bit bigger.  If we do move house, I want a little corner with a couple of apple trees and two piggies called Shakespeare and Bacon. 

Also, the pigs would nom down the parts of careless BMW drivers that won't fit under the patio.  :thumbsup:

Re: Where once there was grass, now there are raised beds!
« Reply #8 on: 01 January, 2010, 05:54:17 pm »
The chooks arrive tomorrow  :smug:

Ooh, what hen house are you getting?  An Eglu?  It looks great, Charlotte.

We've got two raised beds at the woods for potatoes, two to be put up for the onions, a large potato patch, a new greenhouse that will grow saplings but also accidentally probably some tomatoes, courgettes, squash, peppers and salads (6 raised beds to go in there), and of course, the chickens.

We're almost self-sufficient, given that we also grow veg in the front garden at home (can't grow in back garden as chickens eat almost everything).  There's also an orchard at the woods (new apple, plum, damson and cob-nut trees), and loganberries, blueberries, blackcurrants, rhubarb and gooseberries at home.

It is addictive, growing your own food.  The eggs are pretty good too :-)
Spinning, but not cycling...

Julian

  • samoture
Re: Where once there was grass, now there are raised beds!
« Reply #9 on: 01 January, 2010, 06:00:33 pm »
We're getting one of these:




Re: Where once there was grass, now there are raised beds!
« Reply #10 on: 01 January, 2010, 06:08:33 pm »
You are the Goods, and ICMFP. ;D
Actually, it is rocket science.
 

Eccentrica Gallumbits

  • Rock 'n' roll and brew, rock 'n' roll and brew...
Re: Where once there was grass, now there are raised beds!
« Reply #11 on: 01 January, 2010, 06:29:05 pm »
We're getting one of these:




Oh, I think that's the one my mum's got. She's built a larger fence around it with a lockable gate so they can come out for a wander during the day when she's at work.
My feminist marxist dialectic brings all the boys to the yard.


clarion

  • Tyke
Re: Where once there was grass, now there are raised beds!
« Reply #12 on: 01 January, 2010, 06:38:20 pm »
We've just finished getting our garden ready for this year's growing.  Julian and I have spent the last couple of days making up some new raised beds and paving off an area of the garden to sit our new chicken house on.

...

That's precisely what I should have been doing.

But I rided my bicycles instead :-[
Getting there...

andygates

  • Peroxide Viking
Re: Where once there was grass, now there are raised beds!
« Reply #13 on: 01 January, 2010, 10:06:40 pm »
I say, you can grow slugs and cat poo just like I did!  ;)

Nice shovel pose there, C.
It takes blood and guts to be this cool but I'm still just a cliché.
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Re: Where once there was grass, now there are raised beds!
« Reply #14 on: 03 January, 2010, 12:49:46 pm »
Just think in a few short months it will look something like this ,



This was my little plot last year in only it's second season.

 ;D
Rich

woollypigs

  • Mr Peli
    • woollypigs
Re: Where once there was grass, now there are raised beds!
« Reply #15 on: 03 January, 2010, 05:55:52 pm »
I saw the six bodies raised beds you have created and they looked well made. Looks like a nice use of your garden with chickens and veggies.

But for the life of me I can't see the point in raised beds when you still have to bend down to get to them, isn't the point that you can stand up next to them and do your gardening?

Current mood: AARRRGGGGHHHHH !!! #bollockstobrexit

Julian

  • samoture
Re: Where once there was grass, now there are raised beds!
« Reply #16 on: 03 January, 2010, 06:24:45 pm »
No, the point is that they're raised slightly and so they drain better & so the soil is better - we have claggy, clay-ey waterlogged soil here.  We'd never have enough earth to raise them right up!

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Where once there was grass, now there are raised beds!
« Reply #17 on: 04 January, 2010, 02:04:19 am »
No, the point is that they're raised slightly and so they drain better & so the soil is better - we have claggy, clay-ey waterlogged soil here.  We'd never have enough earth to raise them right up!

...unless you started digging a tunnel :)

Re: Where once there was grass, now there are raised beds!
« Reply #18 on: 04 January, 2010, 06:44:40 pm »
We're getting one of these:




Ah, a real one. Still, I'd prefer to be able to move it around, as chickens are wonderful for 1) removing all weeds from a piece of land & 2) fertilising it. ready for a crop. But I realise you lack the space for that.
"A woman on a bicycle has all the world before her where to choose; she can go where she will, no man hindering." The Type-Writer Girl, 1897

Julian

  • samoture
Re: Where once there was grass, now there are raised beds!
« Reply #19 on: 04 January, 2010, 08:08:37 pm »
Not enough room for that unfortunately.  But they'll be out (supervised) as much as we can manage for them to do our weeding :)

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: Where once there was grass, now there are raised beds!
« Reply #20 on: 04 January, 2010, 08:19:32 pm »
You are the Goods, and ICMFP. ;D

Can whoever is Barbara please post a picture of their arse?  Thank you.  ;D
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Re: Where once there was grass, now there are raised beds!
« Reply #21 on: 04 January, 2010, 08:25:24 pm »
You are the Goods, and ICMFP. ;D

Can whoever is Barbara please post a picture of their arse?  Thank you.  ;D

You'll regret that when you're chained up in the cage with nowt on but a gimp mask  ;D
Not fast & rarely furious

tweeting occasional in(s)anities as andrewxclark

LEE

Re: Where once there was grass, now there are raised beds!
« Reply #22 on: 04 April, 2010, 03:32:55 pm »
Well, the process has started.

Stage 1, a Lorry with crane dropped about 2 tons of reclaimed (untreated)Railway Sleepers over my fence last week.  24 Sleepers didn't seem that many until they turned up because I was going to do the raised beds 2 sleepers high.  Now I can see them I think that may be excessive but what do you do with spare sleepers? 



Stage 2, start moving them to the rear of the garage (lucky my son is home from Uni because these things are heavy)



Stage 3, The old swing and climbing frame need to go.  That section of lawn will be raised beds.  That "Wendy House" will be gone next year for a 4th bed if the first 3 beds are a success.  A double height bed will take 6 sleeper (with some extensive sawing in half of sleepers to form end sections.  2.6m x 1.3m per bed)



Stage 4, why bother with the Gym when you can stack 24 of these things?



Stage 5, include a gratuitous bike picture as an idicator of how big these things are. 



Now to get them onto the lawn and order some soil.

Watch this space.

Charlotte

  • Dissolute libertine
  • Here's to ol' D.H. Lawrence...
    • charlottebarnes.co.uk
Re: Where once there was grass, now there are raised beds!
« Reply #23 on: 04 April, 2010, 04:32:05 pm »
Blimey, you don't do things by halves do you?

We got a load of B&Q ready-made raised beds and I knocked them togther in an afternoon.  Then we filled them with about 4" of soil.

I hope you've got an electric saw  :D
Commercial, Editorial and PR Photographer - www.charlottebarnes.co.uk

jogler

  • mojo operandi
Re: Where once there was grass, now there are raised beds!
« Reply #24 on: 04 April, 2010, 05:13:00 pm »
Them realmcoy railway sleepers will last for years&years.I have some forming the edge of a dropped part of the bottom lawn which have been in situ for several years.Two sides of each sleeper are buried & show no sign of deterioration.Cutting them down to size is a career job without some decent tools