The estimated date of last frost in our part of the world (depending on whether you are comfortable with a 50%, 90%, or 100% degree of certainty) is somewhere around April 19. And once you place this stake in the ground the horticultural calendar goes from the abstract to the concrete.
Willow Greens Farm trufans will remember that our attempts to front-foot the 2022 growing season were thwarted by 1) a halting and recalcitrant contractor, and 2) a backordered greenhouse that arrived in January during a howling snowstorm. Our ambitious plan to have seedlings under glass by March 15 is in real peril.
In addition, a cursory look at our soil reveals that, far from the dark loam of Chester County, PA, Loudoun County, VA serves up a fairly consistent field of thick red clay. I’m not sure what they farmed in these parts, but I bet it wasn’t fruit and veg. These factors have combined to push us in the direction of a raised bed/no dig approach—starting smaller this year and expanding as time goes by. This gives us the advantage of bringing in fresh soil and supplementing it with our own homegrown compost.
It seems there are endless ways to create raised beds, and many prophets who preach and demand your adherence to their particular orthodoxy. Gone are the days of Mel Bartholomew’s laid-back Square Foot Gardening; we now operate under the Jacobin gaze of Charles Dowding and his No Dig or Die (that may not be the actual title of his book) approach, where the audacity of forking over your bed is treated as a mortal sin.
Somewhere between lies the sensible approach championed by Huw Richards and Monty Don. They realize that every garden is unique, every gardener has a different set of motivations, and that there are many roads to success.
Our plan is to start with four deep, large raised beds in front of the greenhouse. These will handle our root veg crops (carrots, parsnips, shallots) as well as some carefully placed ornamentals. These will be supplemented with several shallower beds that will take the bulk of our flowers, legumes, winter squash, and cantaloupes.
In order to keep with a somewhat rustic look, we are repurposing many of the failing oak fence rails that line the property, creating four foot by eight foot boxes, and lining the sides with galvanized roofing material. This should give us the look of aged wood without any soil contact. Estimated life (I hope) should be somewhere between five or ten years. The construction has proven to be fairly straightforward, if tedious, and the deep boxes have come together relatively quickly. Now they sit in place, designed to catch a full day’s worth of sun.
As expected, the in-and-out running of the weather has hampered any significant progress on the beds, the greenhouse, or the potting shed. But we live in hope—Gardeners’ World starts in just two weeks.
Raising Expectations
Check out Highgrove House for sheer compost pile envy--just remember that the prince has an army of staff. I fully expect to be very envious of your raised beds and greenhouse efforts, living shaded by the surrounding woods as I do. You get sun! When Spring finally comes here (the May 24th weekend is our safe planting date), I have some major work to do with my currently frozen solid compost bins. I do like the look of your raised beds and hope they acquire a lovely patina. Your post has my sap running for Spring!