I remember starting my very first vegetable
garden. It was a really exciting time but just a little bit overwhelming! "Where do I begin?
What should I plant? Will I even get a harvest?" Well look, whether you're adding
to your garden this growing season or you're a complete novice and
starting your very first garden I hope this video should provide you with
a little bit of inspiration to get started. Hi I'm Ben and today we're going to install
a new vegetable bed together. We're going to get it planted and I'll be sharing some tips
to get you through those first nail biting months. Don't worry, your new veggie garden is going to
look fantastic! So today I'm going to add another one of these beds here. This is about three foot
or slightly over; three foot by four foot (or 100 by 120 centimeters). It's a pallet collar bed so
it's instant and it comes ready made like this. And it fits in with what I've already got here.
It gives those nice pleasing lines of symmetry and just adds to the order of it all. Now why raised
beds? Why bother with them? Let me show you why: So the whole point of a raised bed is that it
raises the surface area above the surrounding ground level and what that does is it means
it drains through a lot quicker so the growing medium inside dries out quicker. And
after a long wet winter that's really valuable because drier soil in the spring tends to warm up
a lot quicker, giving you a head start on sowing in the colder ground down here. So to get our
raised bed in place you will need: a raised bed or materials to make one with, you'll need some
cardboard, you'll need a growing medium to fill up your bed and of course a wheelbarrow to transport
it, some tools and of course our plants and seeds. The bed we're installing today is a pallet collar
bed, which can be sourced very cheaply indeed. But if you want a different size bed,
perhaps one that's a bit longer for example, it's very easy to make your own from lumber.
As you'll be growing edibles in the bed, use untreated, natural wood as you don't want
any nasty chemicals leaching into the soil. If you want to make your own bed like this, use
wood that's at least an inch or preferably two inches (that's five centimeters)
thick. This will give a really solid, long lasting bed. Just drill pilot holes
close to the end of each plank and into the adjoining plank, then screw together using
long screws to ensure a properly secured finish. Overlap the planks like this; one over the other
all the way around. So the bed is adding on to the end of this row here. It does get a fair amount of
sunshine but it also has a fair amount of dappled shade too. That's fine. Ideally you want to put
beds where they get as much sunshine as possible, at least six hours, eight hours ideally. But never
mind if you do have a quite a shady spot, you can at least grow some leafy crops and salads, many
of which we'll be planting today in fact. I'm on a bit of a slope here so I'm going to dig this bed
into the slope so it's nice and level so the water doesn't run off. A bit of a slope is fine but
too much and it gets a bit problematic. You can either build up the soil on the underside to lift
it up level or dig it in like I'm about to now. So I marked out the position of the
bed with canes pushed into the corners just so I know where I'm digging and then I
can start work. This is actually quite a quick project. I reckon that digging in takes about 15
minutes and then putting in the growing medium and planting I reckon you can get this done within
one hour, I honestly do! It's a lovely project. You can even get it done in your
lunch break maybe. Very satisfying! That's it dug out I think to the best of my
ability. I'm just gonna check the levels now. If you don't have a spirit level then a little
tip - you can actually download for free spirit level apps to your
phone and use that instead! So I've dug it in as best I can but I'm a
little bit out of breath so I'm going for a combination. I'm just shoring up the front of
it here with some material to raise this side up so it's nice and level, which it is now and
then I'll use some of this excavated material back around the edges to firm the bed in. To help suppress the weeds I'm going
to put a layer of cardboard down. This acts as a barrier. It makes it much harder
for the weeds to get through. To be honest, with the grass here you could just dump the
growing medium on top having given it a really close crop but I'm just like to be
on the safe side and use cardboard. When you're using cardboard (I think I've
mentioned this before) do make sure it's plain cardboard not glossy cardboard. It's fine
if it's got a bit of printing and writing on it because those are usually made from organic
plant-based dyes but you don't want that glossy stuff because that's just bits of plastic really
and that will come off. Get a really good overlap so that the weeds don't get a chance to poke
through. And just make sure it's quite damp. It's going to be raining a lot later on this week
so I don't think I'll need to wet this down or anything but if you are in a dry climate give it
a good soak to thoroughly wet it through. Now this will take about two months or so to rot down and
by that time all of this grass at least will have died off and if you've got perennial weeds they'll
be severely weakened. And then they've got to get through that growing medium on top so it really
does give you a competitive edge. Some people use that sort of weed suppressing membrane like
Mypex, made from sort of plastics and so on I'm not keen on that for obvious reasons,
trying to use less plastic. And why not use waste materials you've got to hand anyhow? Just
make sure you remove any staples and bits of tape so it's just clean clean stuff. The beauty of
starting a raised bed is there's no digging involved; it's the plug and play way to
get growing! You simply pop your bed in, fill it with your growing medium, plant
it and you're away! Let's fill ours... Now I'm not starting a fire here! I'm just
filling my bed, or starting to fill it with what I've got around. Filling your bed can get quite
expensive, especially if you're using bought in all-purpose potting mix; it's pricey stuff!
So start filling the bed with what you've got to hand. I've got these bits of prunings here.
They've been lying around for about a year so they're quite dry. I'm going to break them up
by snapping them down and spread them all out and those will rot down. They'll act
a bit like slow release fertilizer, slowly breaking down and adding their
nutrients into the rest of the growing medium. You've got a few options when it comes to filling
your bed with the rest of your growing medium: you could use well-rotted manure (that works
well), green waste compost, topsoil (special topsoil you buy in), or indeed your own garden
compost. I've used in the past green waste compost which is compost made from collected garden waste
that the council collects. The trouble is I found it contains lots of bits of plastic and and glass
and other debris. It's fine; I've used it to fill most of these beds and I just fish these bits out
as I come across them, but this time I decided to opt for mushroom compost. Mushroom compost, as
the name implies, is compost that was used to grow mushrooms. But it's still got loads of
good life in it and it's really great stuff, so I've bought it in by the bulk bag and let's
get it into our beds! When you're filling any bed you want to really get the compost in there right
into the corners and edges and don't be afraid to really pack it in. You can actually stand in
it and press it in. You want it nice and firm so the roots have plenty to go on. And that
way you know once you've squashed it down you might need to go back and get another load. I
started my first vegetable garden when I was about 10 years old and it was quite a small
plot and I dug it all over with a little hand trowel! It took absolutely ages! It took a
couple of weeks I think, but it was thoroughly enjoyable! But if I'd have known about this no
dig, no-till technique then it would have saved so much effort I tell you! This is just
so quick so easy and so instantaneous, with instant results! What I love about it is
that you're starting with a really clean surface, so there's going to be no weed seeds in here,
it's just going to give you such an easier start! So because I said the mushroom compost here
is a bit lumpy and I'll be sowing as well as planting into this, I want to finish with
just a thin layer of slightly finer material. So I'm going to open this bag of all-purpose
potting mix and just add that over. If you have just one bed to fill then
you might find it more economical to fill the bottom of the bed
with just your garden soil and top up with a couple of bags like this,
rather than getting in a whole load of it. But if you're doing more than say two beds I think
it's definitely worth getting a a bulk bag of compost in because it works out a lot cheaper per
unit volume. There we are, it's looking beautiful! Never mind growing your food in it, you could
eat your food of this it's so it's so clean and lovely! And now the most exciting part: planting
of course! I've got some plants that I started off in these plug trays here, which are ready to
plant out. I sowed them in the greenhouse. If you want you can buy plug plants; they're readily
available in garden centers and plant nurseries and especially in spring at this time of year.
These have got a nice little root system and they're ready to go out. So I'm starting with
these salad onions or spring onions or scallions and I'm just gonna pop them in.
I've sown them in little clusters so there's sort of between three and five plants
in one little group. So I'll space them about, I don't know, four to six inches (that's
10 to 15 centimeters) apart, each clump. And they'll form little ready-to-go
clumps of salad onions. Lovely stuff! And then next up I've got these radishes here
again, sown in little clusters, and some lettuce. That's everything planted. I've got lettuces here
and I've sort of poked in between these radishes, which will really grow very quickly and they'll
be out before the lettuces fill out and need the space. Now I've got two things to sow. I'm going
to grow some peas specifically for shoots (to cut as leaves) and some beets or beetroot as well.
A really narrow bed like this you can kind of eyeball it or you can just use a cane to get a
rough kind of straight row like that. And then I'll put my pea shoots over at the edge here
and then just use a fork or trowel just to get down about just under half an inch (or a
centimeter), like that. Let's get our beets in (or beetroot). These are nice knobbly seeds,
they're very satisfying to sow as you can see them quite clearly. And I'm just going to space them
about a couple of inches apart along the row and they'll come up and I'll probably have to
thin them a bit but that's absolutely fine. Beetroot seeds are actually like a
seed head, like a cluster of seeds, so you often get two or even three seedlings
pop up for each seed. So you know that you're getting good value I suppose, when
you see these knobbly old seeds here! Now I'm sowing the peas. I've made a slightly
wider drill here and like a little trench and I'm putting them a bit closer because these
are just going to be grown for shoots. This seed is almost past its use-by
date so I'm just cramming the last of the packet in here really, because I've
got some fresh for actual peas later on. Cover them all up, great! I'm going to give
it a quick water because although it's going to be wet I just want to get it off to a good
start, because the compost is quite dry and it wakes the seeds up. Let me just take a moment to show you how
this is now looking on my Garden Plan. So you can see the extra bed I've added in just
here to my plan. Let's zoom in a bit so you can see it more clearly, there we go. You won't
find this Garden Planner in the app store so I will pop a link to where you can find it in the
video description below. These should all grow really quickly at this time of year. In fact
I grew a very similar bed of salads and roots last spring and I was picking them within about
four to six weeks after planting them as plugs. I'd really recommend planting a bed of
fast-growing salads like this because it really gets you motivated and encouraged for
further plantings. This bed and the next make great use of space, with corn under-planted with
lettuce, which will be harvested long before the corn grows taller and fills out. There's also a
sprawling squash in there to weave among the corn, then out onto the path. This is a great example
of a bed devoted solely to leafy salads including Asian greens like mizuna; while this bed is
host to beets beetroot kohlrabi and dwarf beans. There are so many options, that's the really
thrilling thing about all of this! The final step (and this is really optional) is to cover
our newly sown bed with a bit of fleece. These have been costed in the greenhouse so they're
used to the warmth, so this will just help them make the transfer. It's still very early spring
here and although these are cold season crops and perfectly hardy I just reckon they'll get
a better start with a bit of a cover over them. If I'm honest I think probably the main
reason aside from the slight chill is also the pests in early in spring. There's a lot of pigeons
in my garden; they've decimated the brassicas! And my very cute (but very annoying) dog Rosie
as well, she's often sniffing around here and there's also a cat as well, so there's everything
out to dig up our perfectly clean beds! So this will just keep them off. I'm weighing it down, so
the wind can't get in underneath and blow it off and I'll probably just keep it here for two
to three weeks until the plants have sort of settled down and got a little bit bigger
and can kind of better fend for themselves. That's it! That'll do the job! I've started off
a new raised bed today but of course there's no reason that you have to do a raised bed. You could
just start them off straight in the ground. And if you want to do that, just plonk your organic
matter like well-rotted compost or manure directly on top of the soil, about a couple of
inches (or five centimetres) deep, then plant straight into that. It's absolutely fine to have
a new vegetable bed standing as like an island perhaps in amongst lawn all around it, but if
you've got lots of these beds like I've got in my vegetable garden here then you're going to
need paths in between them. So for my paths I like to use wood chips and I just lay them
again on a weed-smothering layer of cardboard and just spread them out. Now I love wood chips
because they don't need mowing (and getting the lawn mower in between these beds would be a little
bit fiddly!) And as they rot down, they feed the soil. Now you might think "well what's the point
in that?! You're not growing anything in here!" But it feeds the whole soil of this whole
area and contributes to the ecology of it. So you've got nutrients going down here
and you'll get the roots of sort of bigger, more vigorous plants like squash getting in
there and that'll give them a further boost. Plus this is really beautiful material
for all sorts of beneficial bugs like those beautiful ground beetles that
help to keep the slug population down. Yes, it does need topping up from time to
time but it's a lovely material to work with, it's clean, it smells gorgeous and it
keeps your feet nice and clean as well! Or if you want to do your beds just directly on
the grass but without the raised beds, then you can just put down your cardboard and then put a
nice thick layer of your compost or other organic matter (like we did with our raised bed) to make
it easier. Though you could just temporarily hem in the sides with bits of wood just to fill
it and then put your path material in and then you can remove it later on. And of course if you
don't fancy all that bending over you can go the other way! Use taller raised beds, perhaps grow in
planters raised up on legs or grow in containers. I really love starting off new growing areas.
To me it means more delicious, garden-grown, organic produce and that's what motivates
us all right?! Now tell me, do you have plans for expanding your vegetable garden? Or
perhaps you're starting off your very first garden? Tell me all about it in the comments
below. What are we up to next time? Well we will be getting our crunch on with a look at
how to grow carrots. How do you get perfect roots every time? Well tune in next week to
find out! Do drop this video a thumbs up, please subscribe and turn on notifications if
you haven't already and I'll catch you next time!
