Raised Beds

Whether you made a New Year’s resolution to cut your carbon footprint, or the credit crunch is putting pressure on your food budget, now is the perfect time to try growing some of your own vegetables. You don’t need a lot of space, or expensive kit, to get started – and it doesn’t need to take up a lot of your time.

By the end of last month, the paving was finished and I had planted my three front garden planters with peppers, bergamot and salvias for the summer. They’re coming along very nicely, and in fact the first cool chilli is appearing on one of my Fooled You plants.

When the sun shone on Saturday morning, and the rain promised to delay until midday, we hatched a plan to build two more of the raised beds in the garden. One half of the garden – 6 beds – was completed last year, leaving 6 more to go. We don’t have space for them all until we take the old shed down, but we found room for two next to Ryan’s workshop.

On Saturday we managed to build the remaining 4 raised beds for the back garden, which is now nicely symmetrical. They’re made from (eco-treated) half sleepers, which are not light – building a raised bed means a lot of heavy lifting. Even so, it was the weather and not the effort involved that has slowed us down. We’d been waiting until the garden dried out!

Over the bank holiday weekend, Ryan and I came to the conclusion that the front gardens aren’t working for us as they are, and came up with a fairly drastic plan to annex one of them into the back garden, in order to provide us with an outdoor dining area. That plan is simmering away in the background, as we work out one or two niggly little details.

Last weekend Ryan and his dad built the first six of my raised beds (ultimately there will be 12 in the garden, giving me a little over 17 square metres of prime planting space). Now they need filling.

It has been rare this winter for free time, spare energy and decent weather to all come at once. Yesterday Ryan and I had a day off in the sunshine, so we made as much progress in the garden as we could (bearing in mind it is still waterlogged!).

Earlier this year, my father-in-law (FIL) visited while Ryan and I were finishing up putting the new metal-framed raised beds in our garden. He said, rather wistfully, that he missed having a vegetable garden. Although he and my mother-in-law (MIL) have quite a large garden, it’s all given over to ornamentals as my MIL is a highly skilled florist. (She did the flowers for our wedding.)

One of the most beautiful and delicious fruits, kiwis are favorites of both children and adults alike. However, like camu camu, these bright green fruits might be most adored by the wellness community, as they're incredibly nutritious. One potential health benefit of kiwi that's been causing some buzz recently? Eating one before bed might help you sleep better—and as it turns out, that might be true.

The growing season might be in full swing, but there are still ways to upgrade your garden game. From keeping out unwanted pests (or pets) to building your own customized trellising and irrigation—it’s time to make your beds work smarter, not harder. We’ve got five ways to customize your planters this summer that will not only make things look fantastic, but will take your growing capabilities to the next level. Whether you choose to tackle them all or just add one to your list of weekend to-dos, I promise it will be a noticeable refresh with rewarding results. 

The term pullet refers to a young hen, usually under one year of age. Once a chick develops feathers rather than down, it is then called a pullet if it is female or a cockerel if it is a male. Pullet can refer to a laying hen or a meat chicken but it is more typically used for a laying hen.

If you're a farmer or just want to raise goats, sooner or later you may have baby goats to care for, particularly if you're raising them for milking. Providing a baby goat, or a «kid,» with the right care will help it grow into a healthy, hearty adult goat.