Help with creating a vegetable patch

[flyingjase]

I must to be getting old as myself and the wife want to build a vegetable patch in our garden. I know absolutely nothing about this or gardending in general so any help would be appreciated.

The area of the garden we have allocated is 10m x 5 m (is this enough space to get a decent amount of veggies or do we need more?)

At this time of the year, that area gets direct sunlight from around midday to 4pm - is that enough? In the Summer it will be more than this.

I was thinking of creating raised beds using old railway sleepers to make it easier to weed etc - has anyone else done this? If so, do you have any photos you'd like to share?

Should I be building in an irrigation system? Right now my garden is a dry as a bone as it's only April.

Thanks for any pointers on this

[netherfield]

Raised beds are a good way of growing vegetables,the soil warms up quicker and drains away excess water better.

You are not alone in having dry soil at the moment,although the beds shown have some moisture below.

The photo is from 2005 when the beds were first built,the hedge at the left side is now 2 metres high which creates a wind break.

I have never thought of having an irrigation system,down the left side opposite the middle bed there is now a water tap and hose pipe attached,having this close by saves lugging watering cans or long trailing hose pipes.

Try to build the beds so you can work from all sides without having to walk on the soil too much,incorporate home made compost and well rotted manure to help retain moisture.

Your plot size should be plenty big enough to grow quite a large amount.

[aberdeeneuan]

Raised beds is definitely the way to go. I used some timber I had left over from work in the house (one was an old scaffold board), chopped it to the right size. It's a tad rough and ready though, I wish I'd done it in sleepers now as friends have done the same that way and it looks much neater.

Don't underestimate the amount of soil you need to fill a raised bed though, ours aren't very raised and they took a LOT of soil to fill.

As for irrigation, we run a long hose down the garden but will be fitting a water butt to the shed soon and will consider an irrigation system then.

Edited by aberdeeneuan on Tuesday 26th April 21:45

[Pete Franklin]

I have two 3 x 1 meter plots and that is big enough to provide all the veg for 2 people (+ extras to friends during glut) for the whole of the summer.

If you are doing raised beds don’t underestimate the cost. Sleepers are quite pricy but look nice and the soil to fill the raised bed might cost quite a bit if you use decent stuff (which I would recommend). As an example decent top soil will cost about £60 per tonne and my 6 x 1 x 0.4 total plot took 6 tonnes to fill. If you are trying to be cost conscious have a look at old scaffolding boards instead of sleepers. They don’t look as nice but do the job.

[flyingjase]

Thanks guys - great info here, PH has come up trumps again!