Re-thinking the veg garden.

When we first moved into this cottage three years ago there was no garden and no evidence of there ever having been one. We had two one acre fields both surrounded by low well maintained mixed hedges and a couple of very old and mature beech trees, a couple of ash trees and some sycamore trees. Although surrounded on three sides by forestry we had no idea just how windy the area was. This we discovered in the first month that we were here so we planted a new hedge half way down in what was destined to be the production area, the new hedge itself had to be protected by wind break fencing. We had planned how the veg garden was to be set up, but as they say, 'The best laid plans'.
We have always gone for the raised bed system for ourselves, but not  when we were growing a commercial crop. Although it takes time to make raised beds it does cut down on the work once installed providing they are in the right place to start with and the right distance from each other which we have now decided ours are not. A couple of the existing beds will remain, the strawberries and the Asparagus, but the new beds will be at the start of the veg garden in the area where we had grown the potatoes this year, the timber from the old beds will get re-used for the new beds, the beds will be six inches narrower, Simon is tall and can reach to the centre of the existing beds, I cant, the pathways will be wider and the beds increased in height by nine inches, I will be able to weed sitting down on my gardening stool, hopefully no more back pain,  we will be able to get a wheel barrow down the pathways rather than lugging heavy buckets full of weeds and spent plants destined for the compost heaps. Quite where all the soil and compost is coming from to fill the new beds has yet to be worked out, we are nearly out of garden compost, just enough left to mulch around the Rhubarb plants and top dress the Asparagus. We never seem to have enough compost, hence the visits to the mushroom farm. We do have hen manure and the donkey manure, but none from the pigs as they were free range and pigs don't mess in their houses. If our maths are correct we require ten cu m of soil and compost for the seven raised beds which is a lot! Each bed is eight foot long, eighteen inches deep and three and a half foot wide. We can relocated some soil from the old beds, although that's a hell of a lot of shifting.

Not bad value, they will need a coat of stain.

 We are using old scaffold boards to make the beds, they are still fairly cheap at four euros for eight foot lengths and there is a supplier not too far away. I think we might be rather busy over the next few months, shame we hadn't planned the garden better, but we didn't count on getting older.
There are many reasons for using raised beds.
They are easy to work out for crop rotation.
Once installed correctly they truly are a no dig system, just mulch each year with compost or manure and the worms do the rest.
They are much easier to work as you get older and much easier on the back.
You are concentrating your soil fertility where it's needed, not on walk ways.
It is far easier to pick off the slugs from a confined raised area and slug barriers are easier to put in place.
The are also easier to put cloches over that don't blow away.
There are probably some reasons against them but we cant come up with any cons. 

Felix testing our the roof of the dome.

The first of the hens willow domes has now been tamed and the heavy braches coppiced for firewood, this years new growth has been re-woven, they are strong structures, the cats thought it was great fun to run up the sides and sit on top, just where we were trying to weave the roof.

Woven and tied it looks neat now.

The hens love them and used them to shelter when it was hot as well as sheltering in them from the wind, hens do not like wind.  The willow arches have already been tamed.

Tomatoes are  still ripening in the tunnel and the calabrese is doing well.

I have finished planting up all the winter planters so we have colour all through the winter months, they look very pretty.

 One surprise flower, the  Kaffir lily has suddenly burst into bloom, I had forgotten that I had planted it, it was one of the  plants that we had  from the plant swap earlier in the year, it has lots of spikes on it and hopefully we will not have any early frosts so we should have a bit of colour in the garden for a little while longer.

 Also now showing lovely colour are the Red oaks, we had brought six of these from Spain with us as they are so cheap there; now establish they are six feet tall, they can grow to seventy feet so a long way to go yet.

The Green Tomato Chutney has now been made, I decided that I would spice it up a bit with a couple of chillies, so it is sweet and spicy, ideal to use as a cook in sauce for pork or chicken.

                             Felix had the wind in his tail and tied himself up in the Russian Vine.

Anemones giving a splash of colour.