Some time ago, I planned to make a new raised bed on the last remaining bit of ground that was still looking rather a mess and which certainly hadn't reached it's potential as far as volume of harvest was concerned.
I had made a small inroad into the task a few days ago, but then it rained yet again. Today, I was quite determined to finish the job properly. As can be seen, the site in question had one of my carrot boxes on it before I could go any further. As it happened, I had planned to empty and move the box anyway and use it's contents in the new bed.
As ever, secondhand scaffold boards have been used to produce the new bed with dimensions of 10' x 43". The odd size is because it has been shoehorned between to other beds. The bed has been filled with the contents of the carrot box, 4 of last season's gro-bags, 4 bags of well rotted garden compost and the soil from 2 very small raised beds that were originally on the site. Having mixed all the various contents together, I'll now leave it to settle for a few weeks before topping up with about 3-4" of good topsoil which I'll rotovate in.
The carrot box has been moved to the end of an earlier built raised bed, as has another which I built last year but never used. Together with onions, I plan to grow more carrots than previously as we use so many in the kitchen. Also, I'll now have the space to grow 3 varieties well, rather than very small quantities of 4 or 5 varieties. The 20" high moved box has been half filled with used compost from seed trays, pots etc and will be topped in the early spring with my habitual compost brew which has done me proud over the past few seasons.
The picture above shows the plot as it was at close of play today with the new raised bed in the foreground and the carrot boxes sited on the other beds.
I'm working tomorrow, but hope to get back to the plot on Tuesday, when the forecast again looks promising.
Posts
Wow you did loads today and the finishing results look great. :-)
ReplyDeleteCan you explain your carrot box's ?? i'm a real novice gardener (next season will be my 4th) i have 2 raised beds and loads of tubs and sacks. Now my last lot of carrots i grew were in the deeper of the 2 beds and were so much better and i thought this year i might experiment this year and try a few in some old large refuse sacks.
what do you think :-)
The concept of growing carrots in boxes is both simple and effective for both the dedicated show grower and those of us who primarily grow for the kitchen but like to get involved in showing at a local level. For the latter, the advantage is that the boxes soil level, being some 18-24" above ground level, is, in theory, above the height that the Carrot Fly can reach. In my garden, virtually any carrot grown at ground level will be attacked by the fly, hence the use of boxes. The other advantage as far as I'm concerned is that I get consistantly good carrots in the totally controlable compost mix within in the box, whereas, in the clay soil of my plot, they just don't do at all well.
ReplyDeleteWealth warning! This is hardly the most economical growing method.......but it works.
For more detailed information on how I go about this growing method, browse the link on the right to all my past 'carrot' posts.