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I’ve been feeling incredibly smug this weekend.  Why?  Well watching my veggies growing safely in their raised beds has made me swell with pride.  Our original intention in building the beds was simply to partition off a manageable section of land away from the mass of brambles on our slope.    But I’m now beginning to appreciate the many other advantages of having raised beds.

I’m feeling smug because a passer by who saw me tending my seedlings when they were only millimetres high had said to me, ‘better get the slug pellets on quick!’ I ignored him, there was no way I was going to use those vile blue pellets.  Now I can’t say I haven’t had the occasional uncomfortable moment as a result of ignoring this advice, my obsessive and constant checking of plants would put an OCD sufferer to shame, but as yet I can honestly claim I’ve not lost a single lettuce or sprout to a slug. 

I don’t think it’s because there is a shortage of slugs and snails in our garden, they seem to be in plentiful evidence everytime it rains.  I think the raised beds have provided protection in two ways.  Firstly, although we did use soil from elsewhere in the garden to  fill them, we also used extra  top soil bought in bags and tonnes of peat free organic compost.  I don’t think there were any snail or slug eggs in the beds to start with, and it is the small invisible ones that wreak havoc on your seedlings before you spot them.  We also attached copper tape all around the edges of the beds to deter any gastropods that might be tempted to stick their antennae over the barricades.  The beds looked a bit odd at first but now the copper has tarnished and is no longer visible. 

The other advantage of raised beds is that you can afford to plant vegetables much closer together than you would do in a conventional row growing system.  This is good news for people like me who struggle to come to terms with thinning out!  I can’t bear doing it.  I am overcome by anthropomorphic sentimentality, ‘how can you rip those babies from their mother earth?!’ demands the voice in my head.  ‘Weeding out the weakest as well, a eugenicist!’  I realise I am pathetic and this won’t do at all. 

My Cavolo di Toscana kale is more overcrowded than a Victorian tenement slum.  Passers by, ever ready to advise, tell me they will become pale, weak and sickly if I don’t act.  But at least I can leave them jostling with each other in a raised bed.  The general rule is that it is alright to have the outer leaves touching each other when the plant is fully grown.  This closeness creates a micro climate and effectively conserves moisture and suppresses weeds.

I’m really looking forward to getting more of the slope cleared of brambles so that we can build more raised beds for next year.  I had to severely limit myself this year, I felt like a disappointed child in a sweet shop every time I opened a seed catalogue!  Hopefully I’ll still get a little bit of most things  in.  The raised bed system allows for potager style gardening and the pretty intermingling of veg that would normally be segregated on the grounds of  crop rotation.

Yet another passer by cautioned me not to overweed. He was staggering home from the pub and I wasn’t entirely sure what he was trying to say as he vehemently wagged his finger at me.  Perhaps he thinks this will confuse my slugs and snails, they’re simply lost in all the brambles and can’t find their way to the lettuces!  Intentionally or not though, I think he had a valid point.  This little patch has been so left to its own devices that a balance has been achieved that many would-be organic gardeners still dream of.  It’s the first time I’ve ever been accused of over weeding!

Just to prove I’ve not be overdoing it, here is a pretty picture of one of our brambles!

 To see what our bed looked like three months ago visit Raised Beds, Raised Hopes.

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The wood was donated to us by Arthur, (thanks Arthur!) he is a scrap-man and keeps absolutely everything.  The Man from Salford works with him two days of the week in order to get ‘bits’ for his projects.  I doubt whether Arthur would describe himself as an environmentalist, but he’s been recycling for years and we could all learn a thing or two from him.

Prior to building  our beds, we’d covered the area in tarpaulins to help keep down the weeds, when we pulled them back we found this rodent super  highway.  A reminder that any act of cultivation, however organic and environmentally friendly, displaces natural activity.  Sorry to say it got bulldozed! 

I have spent an absolute fortune on organic peat-free compost.  This does not feel very sustainable, especially as far as my bank balance is concerned.  We’ve had to buy it in bags and lug it up here a bit at a time.  The bags claim to be biodegradable but this is not, apparently, exactly the same as compostable and means they will end up in landfill anyway.  I can see I’m going to have to give my compost heap an encouraging talk, or hire a team of cheerleaders!   

To see how this bed is getting on now visit Vegetables and Raised Beds.