Raised Bed Vegetable Gardening for Beginners

I’m not ashamed to admit to it, I’m a complete novice at growing veg. I can live in hope that one day I will grow a monster pumpkin, you know the one that the neighbour’s kids gasp in awe at when they spot the astonishing sight, through your garden gates.

I’d heard of ‘square foot gardening’ but thought that was someone living with a postage size garden with nothing more than a large square foot planter!

Our garden was a nightmare and I decided the only way to grow anything other than tomatoes in our veg plot, or potager, that consisted only of stones glued together by clay, was to have raised beds. I put my husband to work over last winter and was lucky enough not only to get six raised beds built but a greenhouse too! No pressure on me then to produce an abundance of amazing healthy veg!

What have I learnt over the last few months? Rather a lot, so I’ll share 5 important tips with you in the hope they might be of some use.

#1 - Position planning: Keep a journal. Decide what you want to grow then find out what conditions they need such as full sun or partial shade. Then you can painstakingly plan what will grow in which raised bed.

I did run out of shaded areas during my ‘planning’ so used the haricot bean pyramids as much needed shade for salad produce.