Q Can you recommend veg suitable for my new raised beds?
Eric Tomkins, East Sussex
ABUNNY SAYS Grow anything and everything you can in them! In my raised beds I’ve grown all the usual ‘mainstream’ vegetables, including potatoes, as well as globe and Jerusalem artichokes, with great results. Raised beds are brilliant for ‘no dig’ gardening. This means that the vital and inter-reacting micro-organisms in the soil – including aerobic bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes and microarthropods – can develop relatively undisturbed, which gives considerably better crops. The soil in my raised beds is never walked on or consolidated. And I add compost regularly, as well as compost tea and Biochar. This gives the soil a fabulous structure to a good depth. So even in dry spells the crops don’t need more water than those in the ground.
ABOB SAYS You could grow almost any veg. Success will depend on how good the soil is, how much watering you do, as raised beds dry out quickly, and how much sun each bed gets. I suggest concentrating on a few easy crops initially. Fill one bed with early potatoes. When you harvest them in early to midsummer, replant the bed with leeks or over-wintering cabbages. In another bed you could plant onions and garlic, and sow broad beans until April, then French beans, and add courgettes or tomatoes in May. If you have more beds, try some sweetcorn underplanted with a squash, and make a netted strawberry bed.