GARDENING THIS WEEK

The ultimate raised garden : By

Wally Richards

Now is a excellent time to prepare for the coming season in August and one of the best ways to garden is with a raised garden about hip high that you dont need to bend to work and can grow healthy vegetables with minimum effort.

I also worked out the cheapest way was to use new sheets of galvanized roofing iron. One thing I did discover with the first one I built was that roots from surrounding plants, vines, trees and shrubs would discover the raised garden full of lovely food and they would send feeder roots up into it and fill the whole thing with a mat of dense fibrous roots. Within one season the raised garden would be useless to grow anything in. This you need to put down a concrete pad to sit you raised garden on. (Pad only needs to be about 50mm thick as its only there to prevent invading roots.) Either that or place it on existing concrete like around read of your home. Here is

Construction was simple; lay the two painted fence posts on the ground and place one sheet of iron over the posts to completely cover the two posts. Check to make sure its square fitting and then drill holes of suitable diameter to take the roofing screws.

On a roof you would fasten the ridge part of the iron sheet so water would flow down the gully part.

For your raised garden the reverse applies. Screw in the roofing screws at both ends of the sheet.

what you need and how to do it;

Three new sheets of galvanized iron 1.8 metres long and two 100 x 100 fence posts were also purchased the length of which was half the width of the of the sheets of iron. Cut the fence posts in half so no wastage. The fence posts are treated with chemicals; to overcome that problem a couple of coats of acrylic paint applied all over the wooden surfaces. The posts are not going to be dug into the ground and the whole raised bed will sit in on the concrete.

The reason for using screws as apposed to roofing nails is they are easy to unscrew if you want to move the raised garden or extend it. The same is done on the other long length of iron. You now have two sides so next the ends. The final sheet of iron is cut in half making it 90cm long, a nice width to work on from one side or both. The posts are going to be inside the bed. The two ends are screwed to the fence posts. It is best to assemble where its going to sit which ideally one long side should be facing in a northerly direction.. Now you have the raised garden ready to fill. To fill take any trimmings of trees and shrubs and place onto the concrete pad inside the raised garden. along with any rubbish organic material which can be grass clippings (Not sprayed with herbicide for over 18 months) sawdust, newspaper, old spent compost, old potting mixes and even some top soil (which is likely to have weed seeds in it.)

Filling the raised garden to about half the depth. You can even trample it down and add more till about half full. Over this you put several layers of newspaper. Cover this with purchased compost that is NOT made from green waste. Daltons & Oderings Composts are two safe ones along with straight mushroom compost. The fill will take it to about 35cm from the top of the raised garden. Now you spread some goodies such as Blood & Bone, sheep manure pellets, Wallys Neem Tree Granules, Wallys Unlocking Your Soil , Ocean Solids, chicken manure and the cover these with another layer of purchased compost about 5cm deep. This should then be about 20 to 30 cm from the top of the raised garden and ready for you to sow seeds or plant seedlings. After planting you can stretch some netting or crop cover across the bed and holding secure with a nail in each corner post. This will stop birds and cats from getting in and destroying your plantings and if crop cover is used it will stop most insect pests as well including butterflies. Having one long side facing north will heat up the contents through the iron, warming nicely the mix. The gap between the mix and the top creates a wind break and so you have your own special micro-climate and plants will grow twice as fast compared to if they were in open ground.

When a crop is harvested just place more goodies into the bed and cover with more compost. You will get years of pleasure and nutrition dense vegetables for your health. You can easily extend the raised garden with two more 1.8 sheets and one more post cut in half. Unscrew one end that you want to extend, removing the end section. Unscrew the sides at that end so your new sheets will overlap onto the existing and be screwed on together. Posts at other end will take the end half sheet and now you have 3.6 metres of raised garden. Fill this as previously. You may need to place a brace across the middle two posts to prevent it bowing outwards. Happy Raised Gardening. I am now doing gardening sessions with Rodney Hide on Reality Check Radio.. The sessions are available as replays at https://realitycheck.radio/ replays/real-talk-show-replays/ If you want to here me chatting away then have a listen.