We spoke with Terry Rayner, one of the senior partners at Terwins Seeds.
Terry has enjoyed a long career in the agricultural seeds trade, spending several years as a certified crops inspector.
Terry was [...]
My First Construction Project
Hi everyone, well I decided to buy some scaffolding boards as I wanted to make four main beds and two raised beds at the back of the plot. So last week I recruited the father-in law’s help with driving the Transit van and we travelled an hour and a half to pick up the boards. When we got there we saw a French flag flying proud. The chap who was selling the boards to me was a Scouser, so not the typical French man. So when we loaded the boards on the van we had to ask “why the flag?” It wasn’t much, he was only in the French Foreign Legion for five years! A man you want to be with in a pub!
Anyway back to the plot we went… First of all the gate was broken so we couldn’t get in the site! So I had to jump the gate and my father in law passed the boards through the fence near the plot. We only had 36 of them! We had 16 3mtr boards and the rest were 6ft boards. So after stacking them all on the plot I had no energy to start so I decided to leave it till yesterday.
The plan was to have the main beds 4.5mtrs x 4.5mtrs. Lauren started to measure and it would take a full 3mtr and I had to cut some off a 6mtr board so we would have a lot of off cuts. So we decided instead to construct the beds 4.5mtrs x 3mtrs.
The first bed constructed!
As you can see from the pic I constructed the first bed, with this bed I used a hammer and nails, what a mistake! It took me ages! So Lauren went to her Dad to get a drill for me! Life saver! Its not a perfect bed but it does what it says on the tin. Eventually this will be filled with organic matter but I’m not overly concerned about that at this stage. This will be done through the years.
The sawing bench
So with the aid of a power drill it made the process a lot easier!
The second bed was constructed. As you might see in the pic, you can see quite a mistake. Look at the gate… is there anything wrong? haha now it can not shut fully! So when I’m at the plot next I’m going to switch the hinges so it opens outwards.
So after most of the day I got the four main beds constructed! As we had to change our plans I have a lot of space still for other beds. So what I am going to do on Thursday (my next day off) I am going to see how much timber I have left and I will construct as many raised beds as possible. I say I used only half the plot for my main beds so hopefully I can construct around 6 raised beds in the available area.
All in all I had a good day, I made the plot my own and I have added structure to the place, this enables crop rotation to be easier, weeding will become easier as I will see separate areas to weed instead of a whole plot.
On another note my rhubarb is starting to make an appearance 
Spring is almost upon us! I can’t wait for the long evenings and the warm sun… and wearing shorts!!!
I hope you enjoyed reading this….
You can find me on Twitter @adventuresallot
It’s a good job no-one nicked your boards when you had to leave then unattended overnight! I’m a great advocate of raised beds, and I think your hard work will pay good dividends eventually.
I know I was half expecting them to be gone, my site luckily doesnt have much trouble!
Hi
Scaffolding planks are really good for this. I have 6 on my plot but I have gone for full width of plot – about 20 feet) and either 3 feet or 4 feet wide – so I do not need to walk on the soil at all. How will you reach the middle of your beds withour walking on the soil?
Cheers
Christine
This is one of the flaws of traditional soil cultivation, where soil is tilled, often manure is incorporated and then paths are reintroduced on top. Its all unnecessary work. Raised beds protect the soil structure and if filled with organic material – will not need cultivation.
If the beds are too wide, it will be necessary as you stated, to walk on the beds and avoidable soil compaction will occur, defeating the object of creating raised beds in the first place.
we see this on many allotments where wooden sides have been added in this way without fully understanding the reason for creating raised beds. The boarding makes cultivation difficult and harbour perennial weeds and slugs.
I shall be walking on spare scaffolding boards, I do not want to compact my soil. One of the main reasons why I did 4 large main beds is to incorporate structure to the plot. However I underatand having this system can make it a bit more difficult but I am happy with my choice
.
That makes sense. Even for my 4 foot wide raised beds I sometimes use a plank across to kneel on.
After having my raised beds for only 2 years now, I can honestly say that the soil structure is good – plenty of worms and easy to make drills/planting holes. If I wanted to dig (and I don’t!) I could push the fork in with one hand. However, the large amount of compost and manure I have added does seem to encourage slugs and I am seriously considering using nematodes this year.
Cheers
C