The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Growing => Vegetables => Topic started by: wolf1 on February 20, 2015, 08:00:36 am
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Hello another question to ask i have now built my raised beds they are 6ft long 3ft wide and 6inches high they have been built on top of soil i need to fill them but not sure what to use i will be planting strawberries, watermelon, spring onions ect in them im not doing root veg this year i have some well rotted manure from the cow sheds can i use some of this and if so how much and what to mix it with i do not have any topsoil so will have to buy in any soil
Thanks in advance
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If it is only 6 inches you can just use the manure as long as it is well rotted. You won't need to buy any top soil. Check out Charles Dowding and how he uses sheet mulch.
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Great thankyou
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I had my 2' 6" deep beds filled with almost rotted goat manure and then planted out in pockets of bought in compost. Beans and curcubits love it. I also did the same when I filled my strawberry bed which is about 12 inches deep.
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Mixing the composted cow muck in well with peat / coir waste or similar at the rate of about 1 bucket of compost to five of the other should give you a lot of useful nutrients and a decent water retention capacity .
If you want to keep it open and also retain some of the nutrients till they are needed add a bucket fill of large grain vermiculite to each batch and mix it in well .
You may find that even next year there is still a bit too much nitrogen available for carrots and other long roots.
A way round that is to make some bottomless one foot squares , a foot tall and place them on top of the bed . Fill them with peat /coir & vermiculite but no manure or fresh compost then sow 16 carrots per square foot in the raised top box . By the time the tap root finds the enriched medium deeper down in the bed the propensity to make multiple roots will have reduced a lot.
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Thankyou all for your help it is very much appreciated :)