Are Raised Beds Essential?

 

The arguments for and against raised beds are like those made over dig versus no dig. You are either for or against them and you often find some support one or the other and few change sides. It is like asking a United fan to support City.

Raised beds are not new and can be traced back to medieval times when beds could be edged with wattle fences. 18th century market gardeners in Paris built up their plots with horse manure and compost. Did you ever see them in Percy Thrower's, or Geoff Hamilton's gardens? So why does it seem everyone suddenly wants a raised bed and even the big DIY store are now selling kits which tells you that it has gone mainstream. When did the current obsession with raised beds start to take hold in the UK?

In the 80s and 90s the modern organic movement raised many soil issues such as compaction on hard beds, soil structure improvement, weeds reduction and being able to isolate root disease and other soil related problems with raised beds. Now you can’t pick up a gardening magazine, watch a gardening video or even turn on a TV garden program without being faced with timber raised beds.

I can see the case for raised beds on some plots but will the trend be that all plots will have to have a shed, compost bin, rainwater barrel and raised beds. Interestingly on our site, which has a huge diversity of ethnic backgrounds and culture, only a single group of growers have adopted them.

Are they cheap? Some may say that there is masses of timber waiting to be picked up and screwed together, but if you look at the cost of new and even reused timber the answer is no. First to build a single 8 x 4 foot 1 foot deep bed you will ned some 24 feet of 6 x 1 or scaffold board and 6 foot of 2 x 2 plus nails, screw etc. Then you must fill it. So the maths is not hard and then times that by the number of beds. There are also those who will debate what sort of timber that should be used. and whether the beds need lining.

I did the maths and walked away, that’s until today. So, what has changed and have i suddenly become a devote follower of raised beds or merely a follower of fashion?

The building we live in is now having to adapt to the new building fire regulations post Grenfell and wooden decking on balconies is now out. Decking was not universally installed by owners, but it all has now to be removed. This means that there is now potentially a lot of good quality decking boards going free. Music to the allotment holder in me.

As a result, I have now got some 50 x 8 foot grooved boards and 2 x 2 treated batons for free and transported them to the plot. I could use the timbers to just create neat borders and tidy my bank, but I have decided to raise my game and beds instead.

I intend to line the inside of the timbers and treat the outside, so they have a longer life expectancy. Once the main plot area is cleared next month, deck screws will be waiting to be inserted and construction will start. I also have spoken with the farm manger and will be dumping quite a few wheelbarrow loads of horse manure to over winter. All will be tucked up into the beds and covered in tarp over winter.

As I arrive to inspect my plot or what resembles a timber yard, Lottie, my faithful whippet plot companion comes to a halt.

‘Where did that lot come from?’ asks Lottie pointing her paw towards a huge pile of timber on the allotment path.

‘I brought it across yesterday,’ I reply.

‘You’re not building another greenhouse, are you?’ Lottie asks.

‘No raised beds.’

Lottie understands what beds are and after all like most whippets she spends most of her life sleeping on them, in them and making them. So, it’s no surprise that she looks a little happy but confused.

‘But you aren’t going to sleep here overnight are you?’ she asks.

I reply, ‘No they are for growing vegetables in.’

She looks confused and turns towards the bench and exclaims, ‘Did you know there is wood under my bench too!’

I reply, ‘Yes i think I now have enough to make a few beds.’

‘Well it’s a good job the weather has turned that’s my lower bunk for when I get hot,’ says Lottie sniffing the timbers.

I simply reply, ‘noted.’

I realise that I will have start to build soon as Lottie is a whippet of habit and I have robbed her of her second bed. She looks at me as if she wants to understand raised beds but doesn’t and clearly thinks I am mad.

How do you describe a raised bed to someone who has no idea why you would want to spend the effort, money and time when you could grow vegetables without raised beds? I must admit I used to think the same, but one can’t ‘look a gift horse in the mouth’, can you?

The Vegetable and Herb Expert - Dr D G Hessayon

When I grew up, we had Percy Thrower in black and white on the TV, the gardeners’ answer to Barry Bucknell’s DIY. We also had those ‘expert’ gardening bibles from Dr David Hessayon whose somewhat simple but straightforward books sold over 51 million copies and are as relevant today as they were some 50 years ago. Their popularity was such that the sales nearly equated to one for every household in the UK.

Then came the new gardeners to grace our lives; Geoff Hamilton, Alan Tichmarch, Anne Swithinbank, Pippa Greenwood, Charlie Dimmock, Bob Flowerfew, Joe Swift and many more. We now have the superstar and everyone’s favourite, Monty Don. These have all graced our TV, presented on radio and written books, for magazines and many column inches in those weekend newspapers.

We appear to have an insatiable appetite for all things gardening. One day Monty shows us an old trick on how to pot on plants without disturbing their roots and next its all over the internet with everyone with a smartphone posting it as the best tip of the day. One recommendation on TV and like some famous cook shows impact on supermarkets, the garden centres are stripped of the recommended plant.

At our allotment site we have a significant number of magazines which have been kindly donated by members and which provide a source of reference to be shared by all. I wanted to spend some lockdown time looking through these, so I arrived home with some 40 gardening magazines from our library covered May, June and some of July and roughly the years 2014 to 2018. The magazines were Gardeners’ World, Grow Your Own, Kitchen Garden and Gardening News.

Some of the magazines were weeklies, others monthly and all included vegetables and allotment subjects and all featured household gardening names and personalities. Today there are some dozen or so gardening magazines published in the UK and vying for all our attention.

I wet my lips and could not wait to learn everything that one needs to know about growing in this important part of the season and to gain some great tips on how to improve my harvest.

There was so much to digest I found myself overwhelmed with advice on how to, when to, and what to do if. Interestingly when you look at the same subject over several years and across all the magazines you got much of the same advice. It may have used the same words but merely in a different way. Some article formats were more digestible than others and needed more time and often were more a dissertation than a synopsis. I quickly established my favourite magazine and started to dismiss the others.

We will all have different reading tastes so will select accordingly. One aspect that I found consistently annoying was the adverts which came at you virtually at every page turn. In some cases, your eyes competed with the latest netting, cloches, frames, tools etc whilst trying to read the article opposite. It was a relief to get to the smaller classified ads in some magazines as at least you could quickly turn these pages.

Just as I was putting the magazines in a bag to return to the pavilion, I received another gardening catalogue. No not one of the many seed catalogues that I get quickly browse and dismiss to Room 101 but one that came with my ‘Nemaslug’ biological slug killer. 100 pages packed with every conceivable product in a one stop shop. I quickly realised what I already knew, that gardening can be an expensive hobby. Maybe I should file this little glossy for a rainy day or for when I win the Lottery.

I think we have enough magazines at our pavilion to answer every plot holder’s questions and provide all the needed tips for many years to come and, if needed, we can always go back to Dr David Hessayon’s bible.