From accessibility to abundance: the raised bed that has changed my life this year!

The idea germinated while listening to a friend in France talking about permaculture principles. She recommended I read a book written by Sepp Holzer, a farmer who has devoted his lifetime to working with nature while farming the mountainsides in Austria.

The book: Permaculture, a Practical Guide for Farmers, Smallholders & Gardeners with its hands on practical advice fascinated me from the start.

I had been looking for new ways to enjoy gardening. Being affected by MS, my mobility had greatly decreased in the past couple of years. My regular visits to Minnowburn, which had always been a precious source of serenity and joy, had slowly become a torture.

My knees could not endure another growing season!

I decided to sacrifice my raised bed to experiment with the idea of creating a bed, shaped like a pyramid and based on permaculture principles.

(Building raised beds: drawing from Holzer, Sepp(2010)Permaculture. p40, Permanent Publications)

With the help of Emma, Tommy and Martin (they did most of the work too be fair, and I am full of gratitude), we started by digging out and emptying the box frame of its soil. We consolidated the wooden frame of the bed with stakes at each corner and hammered a pole in the middle of one of the long sides of the box, to reinforce the side as well as to give me something firm to hold on to when moving around the bed.

Then we built the layers as follows:

1. Dead wood
2. Grass sods, grass face down
3. Horse manure
4. Compost
5. Top Soil

 

The height achieved allowed me straight away to start gardening from the seat of my rollator.

 

 

 

Towards the end of May, I started sowing carrots, beetroots, spring onions, turnips, cos lettuce, lambs lettuce, rocket on both sides of the pyramid (or “the mount” as Martin likes to call it).

On the ridge, I sowed French beans and put a courgette plant on the top edge, interplanted with Nasturtiums.

I noticed very quickly that everything was growing at a much faster rate than the rest of my plot, where most vegetables seemed to be struggling to survive the wet conditions in spring and early summer as well as the tedious attacks from slugs and snails.

 

I was onto a winner!

 

The crops have been amazing and abundant. One of the great advantages of this raised bed is that there is very little maintenance required. As most of the soil is covered by vegetables, there is no weed. The slugs do not seem to enjoy the climb up the sides of the box frame and therefore, there is very little damage to young plants.

Other key advantages:

• The soil is light and loose
• There is excellent drainage
• The soil is full of nutrients

This adapted solution has changed my life at Minnowburn this year by meeting my new needs and by giving me the best harvest to date. I truly recommend it!

Muriel Renou