Link-a-Bord

Current allotment area of guilt: a strawberry patch so riddled with weeds and grasses that the strawberry plants are hard to spot. I know, I know, they won't fruit and flower without some urgent space or attention, but I just haven't got around to it yet ... other fish to fry. Or rather raised beds to construct. (To be fair someone else did most of the constructing - I was more of a foreperson. And a sem-grumpy one at that, if I recall correctly.)

I've invested in some Link-a-Bord raised beds and very fine they are too, and a doddle to put together, AND made out of recycled plastic so far "greener" than using virgin wood. Two are up, and I have another three to put in place when the ground's prepared. The great thing is, if and when I move home - and thus allotment - I can easily lift them out of the ground and take them along with me.

Comments

[David L]

You know the visits to the allotment have become a lot less daunting and intimidating since I installed a number of raised beds, using bits of an old garden fence which were lying around. About 1.5m square. Irrespective of the ease of cultivation, and the benefit of soil which has not been trodden on and the sheer neatness of the whole thing, the main thing is the PSYCHOLOGY of raised beds. It is so much easier and quicker weeding or planting or tending 3 raised beds than the same area of open ground. It's wonderful. Thoroughly recommended. But then you probably already knew that. Glad to have got that off my chest. Cheers, David.

[Gnome]

Well Jane, for ever an education when I visit. Not only do I get a really good modern version of an old idea but I get some psychology as well. We inherited some wooden versions of this idea which are slowly rotting but this new plastic version is cool. Especially the blue which will look quite swish on the plot. Thanks for the link.

[Tim L-B]

At the Rosendale Allotments site in South London recycling old scaffolding planks is the craze. The wood is not treated in any way, so they won't last forever, but the stores sell the 13 foot ones for about £3 each, which means that they're a very cheap way of building raised beds.

[Jane Perrone]

Thanks for the top tip Tim! I am sure that's a cheaper way of doing things, but I see the Link-a-Bord as a long-term investment. I guess it just depends how you want to do things.

[Mamaheffo]

Hi there, I'm just doing the debate on wood or plastic, and plastic is winning, but I do have a question - do you find the 15cm is deep enough? I realise you can stack them to make them deeper, but just wondered how you were getting along with them.

The ground I'm working with looks pretty pan like and hard and full of roots from some fruit trees. I'm reckoning that I won't be able to attack all of the pan before the growing season is in full swing, but will do it in stages. Hence the thought that I could just plonk the raised bed on the hard soil and have it as a job in progress...

So is it deep enough are you finding? What you got growing there?