Large raised beds
The four large raised beds are two metres by one metre each. Bed 1 contains the raspberries and strawberries. Beds 3 and 4 are on a rotation system.
Bed 3: From autumn 2019 to summer 2020 it contains garlic and onions. Once the garlic and onions have been lifted they will be replaced by brassicas which will have been grown in pots up until that point. These will be replaced In March / April 2021 by broad beans and peas.
Bed 4: March / April 2020 broad beans and peas will be planted out – these are currently in pots in my conservatory. From the autumn it will be the turn of garlic and onions and then the following summer it will be time for the brassicas.
Bed 2 isn’t a vegetable bed anymore. It had started out as one and was part of the rotation system and allowed me grow root vegetables within the rotation. But a combination of successive poor years of crops from the root vegetables, the length of time that root vegetables need in the ground together with a growing interest in alpine plants has led me to turning this bed into a raised alpine bed.
Small raised beds
These three beds are one metre square beds. Bed 1 is where the climbing beans grow during the summer months. Outside these months it is a temporary bed, sometimes containing plants and bulbs where I am preparing their final destination, sometimes containing vegetable plants where I have too many to go in the large raised beds. If it isn’t being used for anything else, then I sow quick cropping salad plants such as radish. Beds 2 and 3 contain the asparagus.
Greenhouse
This is where the tomatoes, chillies, sweet peppers and melons are grown. During the winter months I store the citrus plants, and tender plants which I keep in pots. I don’t heat the greenhouse, so very tender plants which can’t cope with it going below freezing at all are overwintered in my conservatory.