Topic: Asparagus bed

[vegging out]

My plot is gently sloping,just wondering would any of you advise me on whether to have the bed running down or across the slope.
Many thanks. :)

[cambourne7]

hi

mine is the same, i went for the beds running down the plot but i hammered in the posts and then added with wood which means that at the bottom of some of the beds theres a clear inch betten the botom of the wood and the ground which levels the bed.

I have black membrane down and i cut a hole inside the newly made bed with about 6 inches still inside the bed and then i foulded the membrane up inside the bed to stop the weeds growing though.

I then added some wood chips right up the wood :-) making a path.

Its all good.

Cambourne7

[saddad]

I would always prefer to run across the slope to avoid loosing water down the site...
 ???

[vegging out]

Anymore opinions on this one folks?I'm still undecided. ???

[artichoke]

I have long beds running downhill on new allotment (the other is flat) and wondered recently if I had made a mistake, and should have made them go across the slope. But the fact is that in spite of torrential rain on occasions over their first winter, not very much of the soil has washed out at the bottom so I am keeping them like this for the time being. Admittedly I have no permanent crops in them, so it would be easy to change direction by digging out a few paths. Your decision is more difficult...

[Ron Weedsley]

Hi,

Everything else being equal, I'd go across the way rather than down the slope. You'll end up doing a lot less walking up and down the slope this way. You'll also find moving heavy barrows of muck easier and safer when it's wet & slippy.

You can't avoid the slope, but you can work with it.  :D

[artichoke]

Walking up and down the hill: a good point.

On the other hand, I have just been dragging bags of manure down the hill and found the slope very helpful (no wheelbarrow).... It's easy to tip stuff out of bags too, when they are facing down hill.

[delboy]

If you look at tea and other forms of plantations in Asia and the Americas you'll see that contour farming is the way they do it, ie they go along and not down slopes. In Italy and Greece and other Mediterranean countries the idea of working with the contours rather than against them is the norm.

Although massive soil erosion is not currently a problem in the UK, it may well one day be so..another global warming bonus.

For water conservation alone it would seem better to have terraces, so that water can be distributed more evenly.

[shirlton]

We have a plot on 2 levels. At the bottom of the drop we planted the runner beans and they stayed much moister. Top half is a bit dryer, You just have to plant the right things in the right conditions.