Spare space in the raised beds

[Phaedra]

Spacing is one of the trickiest factors regarding gardening, in my opinion. You can also manipulate it for a maximized yield (for example, succession planting) or an optimized performance (for example, smaller sunflowers for arranging bouquets or even forest gardening).

The experiment started last year when I cleaned up the summer crops from one raised bed, but nothing got transplanted for a few weeks. A naked bed is never a good thing, so I just put the young plants propagated from cuttings on the bed's surface. For me, it's easier to water them than letting them sit on outdoor shelves - in summer; it's so easy for 9cm/11cm pots to dry out completely in a short time. My idea is, as long as the pots sit in a raised bed, there should be two-way protection or win-win for both the soil (in the raised bed, it won't dry out soon) underneath and the young plants (the roots have the chance to engage with the ground and micro-organism) above.

It was. When I finally removed those young plants in the autumn, their roots grew crazily into the soil. It was a much better scenario compared with many root-bound plants on the shelves.

Then spring came, and the soil was warm enough to transplant seedlings. After seedlings were checked in their positions, I had to use nets to protect the entire bed from hungry black birds' crazy digging (and slaughtering young seedlings). They usually stop digging only when the plants are big enough and bushy and no longer easy to access the soil.

So, how about we let those pots sit in the spare space in the bed? It's not succession planting, just a kind of air-bnb for the potted plants: less soil erosion and more chances (for potted plants) to access food and water from below.

If we think about how mints are usually planted - in pots, so their runners won't spread. Using the spare space in raised beds should be a practical method.

There is also much less landing space - blackbirds show no interest in digging a bed like this.

I love my greenhouse and outdoor shelves; however, it's even better to let the potted plants stay like this - they enjoy much more natural elements and grow better. When they leave the bed, there are also almost no weeds, and they are ready for planting immediately.

I will say it's a 'nursery' concept, just on a backyard scale.

 

[flowerbug]

the biggest downside to that arrangement is if you have a bad slug or snail infestation you'll have a very hard time of it.

what that does remind me of was designing a large garden built around the idea of modular railroad cars that i could move around by remote controls to bring the ones i needed to work on that day to a station where i had my watering, ferts, soils, snippers, etc. and then when done with them i could send them back to where they belonged.

the problem with that is that once you are container gardening you have removed yourself from the subsoil and the nutrients and animals that are there so it adds work because then you have to take over the roles of those plants and subsoil plus then you also have to keep up the tracks and other things... so while it is fun to daydream i really end up being very happy with the simplicity of direct in the ground gardening and if i need raised areas i just pile up some garden soil and tamp down the edges with my feet and call that good enough.

 

[Phaedra]

the biggest downside to that arrangement is if you have a bad slug or snail infestation you'll have a very hard time of it.

Yes, I thought about this also today, and thankfully, we didn't have a slug/snail issue in this area. One of the possible reasons might be the increasing number of garden birds - they (and their baby birds) are always in hungry mode.

 

[Phaedra]

Keep experimenting - this bed is now arranged based on the forest garden concept, just on a tiny scale. For the spaces between transplanted shrubs and crops, potted young plants are sitting.

Another bed with a similar idea; most of my geranium collections are staying here temporarily.

This is how the roots grow crazily downward instead of spinning around in a constrained pot.

 

[Boppo]

Spacing is one of the trickiest factors regarding gardening, in my opinion. You can also manipulate it for a maximized yield (for example, succession planting) or an optimized performance (for example, smaller sunflowers for arranging bouquets or even forest gardening).

The experiment started last year when I cleaned up the summer crops from one raised bed, but nothing got transplanted for a few weeks. A naked bed is never a good thing, so I just put the young plants propagated from cuttings on the bed's surface. For me, it's easier to water them than letting them sit on outdoor shelves - in summer; it's so easy for 9cm/11cm pots to dry out completely in a short time. My idea is, as long as the pots sit in a raised bed, there should be two-way protection or win-win for both the soil (in the raised bed, it won't dry out soon) underneath and the young plants (the roots have the chance to engage with the ground and micro-organism) above.

It was. When I finally removed those young plants in the autumn, their roots grew crazily into the soil. It was a much better scenario compared with many root-bound plants on the shelves.

Then spring came, and the soil was warm enough to transplant seedlings. After seedlings were checked in their positions, I had to use nets to protect the entire bed from hungry black birds' crazy digging (and slaughtering young seedlings). They usually stop digging only when the plants are big enough and bushy and no longer easy to access the soil.

So, how about we let those pots sit in the spare space in the bed? It's not succession planting, just a kind of air-bnb for the potted plants: less soil erosion and more chances (for potted plants) to access food and water from below.
View attachment 57209
If we think about how mints are usually planted - in pots, so their runners won't spread. Using the spare space in raised beds should be a practical method.
View attachment 57210
There is also much less landing space - blackbirds show no interest in digging a bed like this.
View attachment 57211

I love my greenhouse and outdoor shelves; however, it's even better to let the potted plants stay like this - they enjoy much more natural elements and grow better. When they leave the bed, there are also almost no weeds, and they are ready for planting immediately.

I will say it's a 'nursery' concept, just on a backyard scale.
View attachment 57212

genius! I have chickens that want to get into my raised beds and scratch. I bet if I do this, it will keep them out! Thank you.