My fruit and vegetable plot is conveniently at the bottom of my garden so no excuse for not popping out and doing a bit of gardening:
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Its a rectangular plot in the middle of the garden with largely 'lawn' all around, about 100 square meters including quite a bit of paving. About half the growing area is in Raised Beds which are a really great way of growing veg with all year round access. My soft fruits are grown in a Fruit Cage which has raised beds down the center for the Strawberries with Currents and Gooseberries on one side and Raspberries on the other. The main vegetable area is used for the plants that need more space like Potatoes, Runner Beans and Courgettes. The bed above the Fruit Cage is for Asparagus and Rhubarb. A small bed alongside the Fruit Cage has more Rhubarb. I have several compost bins, the two large bins on the left are used first, these are made from a steel mesh so are fairly open and don't compost that well but are fine for the initial breakdown. Material is then moved to the middle bin which is made from plastic lined pallets for the final stage of composting. I also have three plastic bins which are used either for storing the final compost or manure. |
The soil in this part of Moulton is very light and sandy and so is very free draining, this means we don't suffer much from getting water logged and generally the ground can be worked fairly soon after rain. So its great for things like carrots and potatoes which come out nice and clean but rubbish for 'hungry' plants like Brassicas (Brussels, Cabbage, Cauliflower etc.). The only answer is to add as much organic material and ideally well rotted manure as possible, even then I find results disappointing but keep trying.