Allotments 4 All

Silly Question, after reading, watching and looking on this site, we decided to go with some 1.2 x 3 raised beds. Yesterday after a lot of hard work we constructed and dug and raked and it looks great.

Then we stepped back and thought that’s small! How on earth are we going to get enough veg out of that! You would only get three cabbages across and the spuds would have to go length ways and there would only be room for two rows of them.

Please, Please tell us all our work has not been in vain and we have to build bigger beds?

Frank n Lynn

Hi Frank and Lynn

I only have 2 raised beds in my garden.  A member here on the forum suggested Square Foot Gardening.  There is a good website all about it.  Just google!!

I have now sectioned my beds off, and its amazing what you can fit in a small space too

There is also a very good blog about a lady experimenting in small places and full of invaluable info  http://mostlyiwillbegrowing.wordpress.com/  She has plans that you can print off too.

Large buckets and pots are invaluable for growing many veg in if your space is limited.

Hope the above helps :)

Thanks springbokgirlie,

Its nice to know that size realy dose not matter.

You can plant things like cabbage closer than the recommended spacings in raised beds, then eat some at a smaller size leaving others to grow larger.

To get the most out of them you need to plant a succession of crops so there is never any unplanted areas if you can help it. It means military like planning, and also some sacrifices, such as not growing as much PSB as they have such a long growing season and take up a lot of room.more calabrese which matures quicker.

Having said that, I have 3 plants that have overwintered and are budding up nicely with a good crop...once the pigeons left them alone! ;D

Hi Franknlynn

Your beds wil be OK for things like roots/salads etc and in my first year, I grew Potatoes in 8x4 beds.  What I have ended up with is a mix of raised beds and largers beds either side of the footpath, which gives me the flexibility to grow sweetcorn, more spuds and PSB.

Remember that with raised beds you don't need to put in so much spacing as there is no need to walk between the rows as you would with a conventional long row growing method.