So, the rabbit-proof fencing has been finished and we have been making progress on the vegetable patch, hoping to plant our first crops in time for this year! I have spent more hours than I care to confess to in designing the layout of the veg patch, drawing scale plans of the raised beds and making a detailed crop rotation plan for the patch once it is fully established (more on that another time!). I guess all that makes me a little bit ’sad’ but I have really enjoyed it, and as the saying goes, it’s all in the preparation!Having worked out how the beds are going to be laid out on paper, our next task has been to make sure the plan translated correctly into the actual veg patch, so we used some canes and string to mark out where the beds are going to go.
Marking out where the raised beds will go
The reason this is so critical is to ensure that there is sufficient space between the beds to get a wheelbarrow round and to work comfortably. The good news is that the patch is pretty spacious and the layout works really well, We’ve tweaked it a little along the way, making one bed slightly smaller in order to fit a bench along the West edge – essential to have somewhere to sit down after a morning/afternoon digging/weeding/sowing etc!!
Next we have started to dig over the ground where the beds are going. This is hard work but has meant we have been able to remove some perennial weeds as we go along. This will also mean that once we have built the raised beds and filled them with topsoil, the soil underneath (at ground level) will have been turned over and be in better condition and better able to cope with drainage etc.
Digging over where the raised beds will go
Next steps: building the raised beds (we have a target to build 2 this year) and fill them with topsoil. Veg growing here we come 
Tags: Kitchen Garden, Raised Beds, Vegetable Patch, Vegetable plot
Categories: Garden Improvements, Kitchen Garden, Living the Country Life, Posts with Photos, Vegetables