FILLING A NEW RAISED BED / ALLOTMENT GARDENING UK

[Music] [Music] good morning everyone welcome back to the allotment Diaries hi Einstein good morning to you too the second I start talking at the birds hear me and they want their grub um so we'll be doing that in a minute but uh welcome back thank you so much for clicking onto this video I'm going to be filling my brand new raised bed today and I'm very excited about it always exciting to fill a new raised bed to have it all filled up ready to go in the spring I mean what could be more exciting than that it is literally the definition of Hope the definition of Hope in the dictionary should be a freshly filled raised growing bed that's my opinion anyway there's nothing more hopeful than seeing that fresh soil knowing that it's all full of goodness and it's just ready to have fresh plants put in there um how exciting I'm using it as sort of a a multi-purpose versatile bed because it's brand new this year I haven't planned it so um it's sort of got it's sort of an extra bed so whatever crops I decide to go in there later will go in there I haven't got anything set in stone right now but if I had if I decided like oh there's going to be like carrots in there or something um or like blueberry bushes then I would have like tailored it to to what that plant needs but because I don't know what's going in there I'm going to make it the universal multi-purpose super versatile bed so it's basically anything could go in there and do really well and that's what we're going to be doing today which is very exciting please don't hit me door so Rudd he's singing away for me so we're going to start by feeding our little birdie friend um and then we'll get on we're just filling this raised bed up and I just I just can't wait it's just the best job isn't it the best job right I'm coming Einstein I'm coming chill your beans [Music] Einstein coming in I see you coming in yes come [Music] on still works still works look at it come on come on eat them then they're expensive eat them [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] right okay I've just gone and got myself a pile of horse manure I tried to choose the stuff that's like really well rotted down but I can't promise it's completely rotted down um what I'm going to do is use it as one of the first layers so hopefully that will sort of be okay just cut myself on a rusty nail um on the way back with the wheelbarrows pointing out some shed and was super Rusty it hasn't drawn blood so I'm hoping it'll be okay but it's just um just thought I'd remind you like Safety First in the allotment plot and also I don't remember the last time I had a tetanus injection um he's laughing at me um it's not funny it's actually a very serious illness and there's a lot of Rusty stuff around allotment plots so might be worth going to the doctor and getting a tness injection I reckon but just something to think about if you're getting an allotment plot you know they're quite dangerous places right let's start filling her up baby hello hello something just jumped in my shed you know what I don't want to know what it is don't tell me I don't want to know right here we are the rais bed this is what we're going to fill up today hopefully to the top completely ready for planting in I can see some bind weed Roots there so we're going to get those out first now because I'm layering this bed up really like a lot and I'm using cardboard and everything I don't need to worry about digging out all the bed I just don't all the weeds will be suppressed but bind weed that's something I really want to get rid of cuz that that is a Survivor that will just keep coming back and just cause me so much misery so I'm going to get as much of it out as I can oh those it right I'm going to start off with a big thick layer of cardboard this is like Amazon packaging all the labels and sticky tape have been taken off of it and the Only Rule about cardboard is make sure it's not shiny shiny cardboard contains a chemical um though all cardboard will have some kind of chemical in it so if you want to be completely organic don't use cardboard at all is my advice but shiny cardboard will not compost down it will not um do your soil any good so any shiny things like toy packaging fish finger packets things like that it's got shiny coat on the outside it's been glazed in like a chemical to stop water from penetrating it we want water to penetrate the cardboard so that's the rule on cardboard um obviously take off full sticky labels um don't worry too much about the ink colored ink is technically worse than black ink but at the same time again if you want to be totally 150% organic don't use cardboard at all because it's got everything's got some kind of chemical in it you know benefits of cardboard is it's going to act as a really good weed suppressant so we're going to keep all the weeds down also the worms love it they go mad for it um and it should just make a really nice base for this um this raed bed really so we're going to whack this down let's do it [Music] so a lot of the questions I get about cardboard is that the roots how do the roots of plants go through through the cardboard can you plant into cardboard basically yes you can I'm going to Top This up with lots of goodness and ending with like compost and I will grow into it and The Roots will be able to get through cardboard it sort of breaks up when it gets wet and when it's been sitting in the ground for a long time you know how it goes quite mushy um so the roots can push through it quite easily one of the things it does is it Smothers all the weeds and stops those from being able to come up because obviously plants need light to grow so if you put a great big bit of cardboard over it it can't grow up but the roots of new plants can go through it so don't worry about that just whack it down make sure you top it up with lots of stuff and if you're only topping it up with a little layer like you're just putting compost on I would suggest you wet the cardboard first so just get a watering can or a hose completely soak the cardboard then put your compost on it'll just help it to rot down a little bit quicker sitting right by [Music] me it's not really a worm Day on if I'm honest with you it's just not it's just [Music] not we are stick collecting now I think when you've got a new raised bed particularly at the allotment plot you don't want to spend a lot of money topping it up obviously my my homemade compost it isn't ready yet so I can't use that so I've had to buy compost already but that's quite a tall raised bed I want to fill it up to the top and the best way to do that is to go around and find as many natural free material as you can find to put in there so I've got so many sticks at the back of my plot I'm going to whack these on I think it will add structure I think it will add good drainage and I think it will add height to it as well and that's why we're using sticks but you use whatever you've got it just makes sense to use these you know just makes sense to fill up the bed with it and it will rot down eventually it will compost down it will take a long time but until then it might add some nice structure and drainage to the bed bit like putting in rocks but I don't want to use rocks because I want it to actually rot down in the end so it's a good choice I think [Music] [Music] [Music] oh oh oh [Music] these are piles of leaves that I collected over the Autumn time and the idea was to make leaf mold with it but I've changed my mind I'm going to put it straight into the raised bed cuz it was still rot down I mean it is rotting down now look at that it looks so good and it's just leaves are so good for the soil structure and stuff so I'm going to whack it all in otherwise it's just going to sit here for like 3 years you know what's the point of it got so much of it as well so much of it like that might as well use it you know right whack this in it's a good sign [Music] right it's looking good so far isn't it I think you'll agree it's looking really good we've got such a good base got such a good base of natural organic material in here so we got the sticks we've got the horse maneral we got the leaf mold just started to make and lots of I mean it's basically compost which has gone on the top but just mainly made out of leaves oh there's compost worms in here there's so many worms that that's excellent that is that's fantastic so we've got life in here as well it's brilliant so the last thing to put over the top are going to be my multi-purpose bags of compost that I purchased ideally it would be my own homemade compost going on the top but I haven't made enough of it yet um I'm working on that this year hopefully by the end of this year I will have my own compost to use for now I've had to buy it so I'll show you the stuff that I brought it is this stuff it is the multi-purpose compost it's peep free and it's from being Q in their good home range um I think this is is it 100 L I think it's yeah it's 100 L completely pee free it's not perfect stuff but it is the cheapest and the most that you get for your money um and I've used it all over the plot and I I don't have too much of a problem with it but if you have found a problem with it use different brand so many different brands out there go try another one this works for me I'm going to is it right I've got to try and get it into the wheelbarrow now and it's really heavy this is always a good laugh isn't [Music] it think it's a c p Bary [Music] just bled and dropped it look oh God can someone please come and help [Music] me who designed these stupid Pathways honestly hey [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] SP go [Music] that's it completely filled you know what it's actually filled pretty much pretty much up to the top which is exactly what I wanted and that was two bags of 100 lit compost so 200 L of compost in here plus the sticks plus the manure plus the leaves that is exactly what I wanted to do here because the soil here isn't very good and we got so so many weeds nothing grew very well last year like the sweet peas you know they kept dying and stuff so it really needed this this is how to do a raised bed properly um to improve soil and to have something good to grow into this is exactly how you're supposed to do it so this is the best bed on the allotment so far honestly it's the best one so now I just have to choose what to put in it for the springtime and then away away I'll plant I'm just so pleased with it and like I said you know a new rose bed like this look at that look how hopeful that is so EXC Einstein's going crazy for [Music] it right so the back is looking very good now it's all about putting in the greenhouse now and sorting out that area there but actually as a whole looking exciting we've got the bed to plant into things are really really taking shape now and I am excited and I'm also exhausted so I'm going to head home now I hope you've enjoyed my Vlog today guys I hope it's been helpful for you to see how to fill a new raised bed and it's made you feel excited for the spring I'm going to see you again on Monday have a lovely gardening weekend and let me know if you're going to fill up any raised beds like what I've done it genuinely makes you feel so happy thanks so much for watching guys I'll see you next time bye