I decided earlier this year to split my three front beds
into six smaller beds. I am doing this to maximise my use of the land on the
allotment (halving them means digging them wider, thus using up more space). It
also means that I will be able to reach the centre of the beds when the edges are
built up with timber gravel boards to grow well above the water table. This in
turn means that they won’t be as badly affected by flooding in the winter. Two of
the beds have now been split and the third is being done later this year as it
currently has courgettes, beans, sunflowers and nasturtiums in it.
Each new bed
is going to have at least a double layer of timber around it to increase the
planting depth. In the short term (ie, before timber!) these beds are going to
house pumpkins. I need to buy some poop from the allotment shop to dig in, and
as ever I will need to buy more compost to fill them when they have their timber frames. I use peat free wherever I
can, but it isn’t cheap and nowhere seems to deliver so we have to go to the shop
in convoy to get it!
