Creating A Raised Vegetable Bed | Plants For Shade | High Halden.
This is part 2 of a garden makeover , part 1 can be read here of how I removed invasive bamboo and in its place planted a beautiful variety of hydrangeas in a large pebbled area in the front garden.
In the back garden I was met with a large paved area, with the exception of a rectangular garden bed.
Engulfed by the closeness of the property, boundary walls and tallish shrubs, the bed was shrouded in shade for most of the day.
The most sunniest spot had a buddleia and a non descript poorly pruned small tree hogging the space and the dry soil had creeping ivy throughout.
Even though there was an attractive palisade fence enclosing the area on 2 sides, with a gate and an arch for access,
there was nothing of interest to entice you to venture in. It felt truly uninspiring.
My clients were not to sure what to do with it, apart from wanting it to look more attractive.
After much discussion, we agreed to populate the area with shade loving ferns and hosta’s and a scattering of wood anemones which in time would offer flowering ground cover.
However, whilst the garden bed would look a lot more appealing, it still felt the space wasn’t very useful.
So I suggested a small raised bed for a vegetable patch in the sunny spot.
Apart from the benefits of home grown veg, it would get the clients more involved in the garden.
They were delighted with the idea.
Raised Vegetable Bed
Before building the timber raised bed, the site had to be cleared.
The 2 small trees were dug up, the soil rotovated, and then a good rake through cleared the weeds and the ground ivy.
Building a raised bed is quite simple.
I use timber gravel boards, usually used for fence construction. (decking boards are suitable too)
They come already treated to protect against rot and they are not expensive.
The boards are fastened together with 47mm x 47mm treated timber battens and decking screws.
I dug the holes for the battens to sit in using a fence post hole digger, then back filled with a spade.
The raised bed was filled with new top soil.
Bark chippings were laid around the raised bed to provide a long lasting dry pathway and also to suppress the weeds.
Planting
These stunning ‘June’ Hostas and Hart’s Tongue Ferns will each eventually spread to 60cm, and when clumped together, make much more of an impact.
Dotted with the white flowering Asplenium wood anemones (pictured below), this simple planting scheme will create a fantastic backdrop to the raised vegetable bed.
If you would like a garden make over or a new planting scheme, why not give us a call