The Poultry Keeper

benfish · Joined: 21 Apr 2008 Posts: 12 Location: Cambridge

Hi Guys
Have a reasonably large area laid to lawn and was thinking about growing some of our veg.
Have you any suggestions / tips on how to convert the lawn to a growing area?
Thanks

milkmaid · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 7424 Location: isle of lewis

if you first mark it out ,and then double dig
let the frost get to it to break it up if it's clay Wink

and spend the nights with a seed cataloge
till the earth warms up

EmmyGrey · Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2008 9:07 am Post subject:

Living in France so much about gardening is different but one thing remains the same - the satisfaction of growing your own stuff! The taste is unbelievably better and its becomes addictive (I have a sneaky suspicion that chooks might be the same Shocked

) The winter nights with the seed catalogues are about right Laughing

Sylvia · Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2008 1:28 pm Post subject:

I am just about to embark on the same thing - a veggie plot preparation for next year. Our soil is so bad we have decided to build raised beds. You could do the same with your lawn area, mark out the areas that you want the beds, skim off the top layer of grass and for raised beds you need only single dig to break up the surface, put your edging boards in for the size that you want the beds and fill with layers of good top soil and compost/manure of some form. Once filled give a light dig over to mix it up a bit and leave for the winter. In doing it this way you don't have a huge expanse to dig over each year and you have ready made paths to work from.
I used the above system in the UK and used to get some lovely veggies, also having a bad back I found the raised beds much easier to handle and could dig over one of them without doing myself a mischief.

benfish · Joined: 21 Apr 2008 Posts: 12 Location: Cambridge

Thanks ever so much for those ideas and suggestions. The raised beds idea appeals to us as we have 6 free ranging chickens. They are not too destructive but they do like the odd green shoot!
I am going to try and blag some heavy timbers from work and later on I shall let you know how we got on.
Thanks again.

Gilly C · Joined: 22 Jun 2006 Posts: 2671 Location: South Cumbria

with raised beds much better if you do not walk on them so make sure you can reach the middle of the bed from the path this way you can plant at a much heavier density and thus get more crops Smile

robgodfrey · Posted: Sat Sep 27, 2008 7:26 pm Post subject: Re: Starting from Scratch

Dusty · Joined: 07 Jan 2008 Posts: 1042 Location: St. Asaph

I've got raised beds using scaffolding boards. ( Was originally worried about rabbits eating everything but they didn't but have now had to screen off from girls though!)

A quick turn over of ground and then add some top soil has enabled me to grow everything from spuds to radish.

i've not bothered with potatoes this year as I found that I left some in the ground which sprout again and are a pain to remove from amongst this years veggie.

Spuds have gone into bags -- almost ready to harvest
Laughing

An evening with the seed catgalogues is so relaxing but taxing on the purse as your list gets longer Shocked

EmmyGrey · Posted: Tue Sep 30, 2008 11:14 am Post subject:

benfish · Joined: 21 Apr 2008 Posts: 12 Location: Cambridge

Hi Guys
Thanks again for all those tips.
I have sourced some scaffold boards now.
I suppose you chop up scaffold poles to anchor the boards or do you fix them in another way?
Ben

Sylvia · Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2008 4:17 am Post subject:

We used scaffold boards in the UK, full length for the sides and can't remember if we cut in half or into 3 for the ends. To joins the corners together we used odd pieces of timber (about 2" x 2") to make stakes to hammer into the ground and screwed or nailed the boards to these, we also put a couple down each long side to keep it all stable.

As GillyC said, make sure you don't make your beds too wide.

Don't forget we need photos of progress Wink

benfish · Joined: 21 Apr 2008 Posts: 12 Location: Cambridge

OK Thanks again. I will report back when all is done.

Dusty · Joined: 07 Jan 2008 Posts: 1042 Location: St. Asaph

Scaffold boards secured like Sylvia's.

My beds are done so I can reach at least half way from both sides - but I do have short arms Laughing

tonywarner · Joined: 26 Sep 2008 Posts: 34 Location: sidmouth devon

hi benfish we dug up the turfs and stored them for a year; the best thing to grow is potatoes for the first year Wink

Gourami · Joined: 21 Sep 2008 Posts: 53

Depending how big a raised bed you use, I was told a couple of tips by a old hand;
if you fill the bed originally with a load of horse manure and then a bit of soil on top it can be used as a hot bed for the first year, more so if you have a cold frame to put on top. I havent tried that yet.

The other thing is buy some copper pipe and screw it around the top of the raised bed and this should keep slugs out. It hasnt stopped the slugs all together on my bed but it has reduced them. i suspect the remaining slugs maybe ones that were in the soil when I had it delivered.

Neither of these is necessary but options none the less.