RAISED BEDS

RAISED BEDS AT CASHEL NA COR

This week I have been at the Cashel na Cor site on the Carndonagh road working with a group of 14 people who are on the Job Initiative Programme. The reason we have all come together is to take part in a landscaping and basic garden design course.

So much work has been done already on the riverside garden by the team working there full time, but one of the projects of the week was to create some raised herb beds that will look attractive with the minimal amount of maintenance at the far end of the garden.

There was an area set aside for the beds, but apart from that we had the freedom to come up with a design that would fit in with the existing landscaped areas. Most of the garden is already natural stone so the similar stone that had been donated for the beds will fit in nicely, this will be far longer lasting than building a bed out of wood for example.

There were a few factors to take into consideration before the beds were created. The first thing was to make sure that the path in between the beds were at least four feet (1.35m) wide or more to cater for any wheelchair users or people that need a carer to walk along side them. Steps were intentionally left out because they could cause problems for people with mobility difficulties

The next thing was to come up with a good height for the beds, not only for showing the plants off to their best advantage, but also to be the right height for most gardeners to be able to do the weeding and pruning without any back strain. The decision was made to put the beds at around two feet high (0.7m), which would hopefully satisfy most of the requirements. I use the word “around” because as I found out this week building a raised bed isn’t exactly a straight forward science. The spirit level was gathering dust in the storeroom, and rightly so. The beds are built on a slight slope and to get the benefit of the beds from all angles when you are walking around them they were lowered in certain areas and raised in others. At first I was a bit doubtful whether this method would work, but seeing them in place I realise that it does. The secret is to do a small section of wall and stand back to see if it looks right. If it does, then it is right. Then carry on doing another small section and standing back again.

The stones were held in place by a mortar mix, the effect was to give a dry stone wall look, so the excess cement in the gaps was brushed off before it had time to set, then small gaps were left with no cement, into which trailing plants were put. These were mainly slow growing alpines but in one of the four beds that have been done there are around thirty strawberry plants that hopefully should give a healthy crop in summer.

We started the course by sitting down and getting our heads together to come up with an attractive design that would fit in the area. This done we set about putting the ideas into practice. But like all things organic the ideas changed dramatically by the time we got onto the site. Fixed plans are probably vital when building a house but in this case every change that was suggested by the team improved the look of the beds. We started off with two semi circular shaped beds facing one another, these are now kidney shaped beds offset from one another. There has also been a seat incorporated into the narrow area of the beds for anyone to sit down on a warm sunny day and eat their sandwiches.

The raised beds were heaped full of good quality topsoil to allow for any settling and after a soil test, found that it was around PH7, the fact that the beds will be free draining makes them ideal for most herbs to grow. The beds have been planted up with a few aromatic herbs such as Lavender, Thyme, Chamomile, Fennel and Feverfew. There will be more plants such as creeping Thyme, Rosemary, Lemon Balm and Sage, but at the moment they are small plugs and cuttings so they have to grow up a bit before they can be planted into place. For now they have been potted up and will sit on the windowsill in the building until they are ready for the outside world. The fact that the beds have very few plants doesn’t make them less attractive because we have used a thick mesh covered with gravel to keep the weeds down.

I must say I feel we all worked really well as a team, there were a large number of us on the project, but that didn’t stop us all pulling together, and I think coming up with a very attractive and practical piece of garden sculpture, that hopefully will be enjoyed for years to come.

I’d like to end by thanking everyone that took part for a very enjoyable and enlightening week.

Horticultural.