Sunday 11 October 2009

Garden bed layout

It occurred to me that I haven't updated the layout of the garden beds since we finished constructing them. Here's how it's laid out now:


The pale green beds are mine and the blue ones are my husband's to lay out as he chooses (although I have earmarked three of his squares for my tomatoes). He isn't as committed to the Square Foot Garden way as I am, although he's happy to go along with it for as long as it's working.

There is a tall fence along the right-hand side, and a low picket fence along the bottom. We have set up trellises on the fence edges of the bottom two beds (Beds 1 and 4), and on the bottom edge of Bed 5, to support tomatoes, cucumbers, and beans. These trellises are north-east facing so they get plenty of sunshine.

The pink square at the top right is currently just a weed patch. I hope to plant some bee-attracting flowers over there to keep the fuzzy little pollinators in our garden. We already have a family of bumble bees living in the compost heap but it's good to encourage all kinds of honey bees as well. They are always welcome in our garden (unlike wasps, which seem utterly pointless as well as nasty).

There's also a tall fence along the top edge of the layout, which casts quite a lot of shadow over the garden. I'm hoping that our potatoes thrive in their bags with a nice mixture of shade and sunshine, but if they don't do well then we'll carry them to some more suitable location.

Here's roughly what's in, or planned for, each bed:
Bed 1 - tomatoes, basil, various lettuce types, marigolds
Bed 2 - garlic, leeks, onions, strawberries
Bed 3 - not sure what is planned for this one. Right now it has broccoli and spinach.
Bed 4 - not sure what is planned for this one. Right now it has broccoli, marigolds, and some dead broad beans (the frost got them). I'm swiping three squares for tomatoes, and will plant some butter beans to replace the dead ones.
Bed 5 - not sure what is planned for this one. It has some carrots that are hopefully coming up (this bed has straw and chicken compost in it, and we fear that a lot of the little seedlings are actually weeds that were imported with the compost) and there will be cucumbers planted against the trellis.
Bed 6 - sweetcorn, pole beans, lettuce, raspberries

As well as the raised beds, we'll have lots of tubs with tomatoes and peppers, a row of Roma tomatoes against the edge of the back lawn, and a tub of herbs. We have loads of rosemary already, planted last year and still thriving, and some coriander, so I'll add a couple of others like thyme and parsley. It's always good to have fresh herbs.

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