Raised vegetable beds

Raised vegetable beds have many practical uses as well as looking very nice.

Consider growing your garden in raised garden boxes. Elevated raised gardens require less bending for planting, weeding, watering, and harvesting. Raised vegetable gardens are an excellent alternative for growing vegetables in difficult sites, such as hillsides. Depending on your individual needs, raised beds can take many forms, making them quite practical as well as beautiful.

Nearly anything that holds soil and maintains shape is suitable to build a raised garden bed. Wood, concrete, bricks, stones, or containers that are situated in tiers can all be used for a raised bed. Normally, wood is the most commonly used; you should try to stay away from using any timber which has been pressure treated, however, as the chemicals that are used to treat the wood can get into the soil and harm plants.

Typically, raised garden boxes are laid out in a rectangular pattern approximately 3 feet in width. This layout allows all areas of the bed, including the center, to be easily accessible.The length of a raised vegetable garden mainly depends on your particular landscape needs. The depth of raised garden boxes generally require at least 6-12 inches for the proper root development of plants.

Creating paths between the beds makes the maintenance easier and looks attractive, too. You can create this effect by adding a layer of plastic or other gardening fabric between each bed and covering it with a suitable mulching material, such as gravels or pebbles. The pathways should be wide enough for easy accessibility to the beds with additional room for a wheelbarrow. Generally, a width of approximately 2 to 3 feet is sufficient.

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Growing your own veg can save you money!

Home grown vegetables can save you money as well as being extremely satisfying.


If you are growing vegetables in the hope of saving money here are some suggestions for crops which can deliver real cost savings. When buying seeds, be sure to choose varieties which do well in your region. Even within regions there are ‘micro-climates’ which affect growing conditions, so check locally for advice about recommended varieties for your locale. The prices shown are all estimates at the time of composing this article. Prices may of gone down but more than likely gone up!

1. Broccoli
Broccoli costs about £1.50 a pound, which is pretty cheap. The Central head weighs from 0.3 to 1 pound, so you get a fair amount of broccoli for the price. After cutting off the central head, many side shoots will grow below, and will equal two to three times the original crown. If you grow ten broccoli plants you would produced about 2 pounds each, so you would grow about £30 worth of broccoli for a cost of about £10. The amount of money saved is not enough to get excited about, but the convenience of having fresh-picked broccoli available for 6 – 8 months is a real bonus.
Broccoli is a cool-season crop, and can be grown both as a spring and a fall crop. Broccoli is a heavy feeder and requires soil rich with organic matter. Before planting, compost and peat are worked into the soil, and lime and rock phosphate if needed. Broccoli is highly nutritious and has been deemed an anti-cancerous food. This vegetable is a good source of Vitamin A, calcium, and riboflavin (or vitamin B2).

2. Tomatoes
If we assume that tomatoes cost £2 to £4 a pound for this comparison.
If you planted four plants of a large variety of tomatoes for example (Big Beef), two cherry tomato plants (Sun Gold), and maybe two standard tomato plants. Each of the larger plants would produced at least 15 large beefsteak tomatoes weighing 1 pound or more. An estimate would be a total of 80 pounds of tomatoes (worth £100 - £130 ) for a cost of about £40.
All plants can be planted in the same 6’ x 12’ plot. The cherry tomatoes provide an early harvest, the large tomatoes are used for summer and fall eating, and the meaty paste tomatoes are good for freezing. Standard tomatoes also make excellent fresh or cooked salsa and sauces. Having a ready supply of tomatoes for cooking during the winter months adds value, since the price of tomatoes goes up in winter.


3. Bell peppers
Green bell peppers cost about £1.50 at a supermarket, and yellow and red peppers are even more expensive due to their extended ripening times. Pepper starter plants, however, cost about £1 each at a local nursery. If you planted ten pepper plants and each plant produced at least six peppers and let most of the pepper crop mature until they turn red , they taste sweeter than green peppers a rough estimate is that a £10 investment would yield about £100 in peppers. Easy to grow, peppers are commonly started early in small pots and transplanted when it’s warm enough outside. Pick off any small peppers that may form on transplants or the plant growth will be stunted. Pick the green peppers as soon as they reach size; this will stimulate new fruiting and increase the yield per plant. You can leave some plants unpicked if you want the peppers to sweeten and turn yellow or red; however, these plants will produce fewer peppers.


4. Winter Squash
Winter squash varieties cost between £1.29 and £1.99 a pound. (This is mid-winter pricing, which is more costly.) Squash plants yield about 40 squash, weighing 4 lbs each on average, which adds up to about 160 pounds. This is worth between £200-£300. Squash starter plants are available for about £2 each.
Winter squash are a favorite among gardeners because they’re easy to grow, don’t require weeding once established, and most importantly, they keep through the winter to provide a valued vegetable for eating all winter and spring. The squash bed does need to be richly prepared before planting. If you have space to spare, then growing winter squash makes sense.

5. Lettuce
You may have noticed the price of lettuce has risen considerably in the past two years. A red leaf lettuce could cost £1.79 for a small bunch. (And the Spring Mix, a ready to serve assorted lettuce mix can cost £4 per 300 grams!) If you grow your own lettuce, from a £2 package of seeds you’ll recoup the cost within a few weeks and enjoy your own fresh lettuce for months. Be sure to plant only a small amount of seed, or the unharvested mature lettuce will bolt. Save the remaining seed for replanting every two to three weeks throughout the growing season. This will ensure a steady supply of fresh greens for the table.
Iceberg takes longer to mature and when ready it gives too much lettuce at one time also the head of the lettuce harbors more slugs. The leafy varieties are easy to harvest by picking the outer leaves, and this lets the plant continue to grow and produce.

6. Garlic
The price of a garlic bulb ranges from £1 to £5 a pound, homegrown garlic, grown from cloves saved from a previous crop, cost less than £0.50 a pound to grow.
Garlic is one of the easier crops to grow, but over-watering when the plants were mature can lose your crop. Garlic is often grown over winter which makes good use of garden space. Weeding is important as garlic does not like competition. Harvesting on time and curing properly are important for producing bulbs with good keeping qualities.

The figures used in this article are approximate. We did not weigh every tomato or leaf of lettuce. And the list is by no means exclusive. There are other crops which are cost-effective to grow, and some of the crops listed on this page may be difficult to grow in some regions.
As any gardener knows, growing vegetables is more than about saving money. Growing your own vegetables is healthier for the family because the produce is fresh and (hopefully) grown without chemicals. It is better for the environment by reducing the cost of food transport, there are educational benefits for the children, and oh yes, the vegetables will taste so much better!

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We cover Middlesex, Surrey, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire

Painting bare wood doors

How to get a professional finish when painting new bare wood doors.

Wooden doors have a variety of colours, textures and conflicting grain patterns, all of which need to be painted seperately, however the end result must look even, especially when painting a new wooden door.

This is a easy to do guide to Painting a bare wood door step by step:

Following the grain of the wood, rub down using a medium grade sandpaper.

Using white spirit on a cloth, wipe away the dust.

Any cracks, voids or holes should be filled with cellulose filler, woodfiller or putty. The filler should be left slightly proud of the hole and then sanded back with fine sandpaper.
Doors being painted in a clear varnish or waxed will need to match the colour of the door with a filler or putty of the same colour. If no exact match is available in a pre-mixed form, purchase small quantities of both light and dark colours and mix your own.

B & Q , Wickes and many other DIY retailers stock a product called Paint Knotting Fluid or of a similar name. Use this over any knots in the wood, this helps to avoid stains on your paintwork caused by resin slowly bleeding out of the wood.

Finally remove all dust and debris by wiping the door down, including the edges, with white spirit and a clean cloth.

A good coat of primer should always be apply to bare wood. Make sure this is worked well into the woodgrain and covers any knots thoroughly. To gain a professional finish once the primer has dried, rub the door down with a fine sandpaper and then a clean cloth to remove any dust.

Using undercoat and preferably by the same manufacturer as the top coat, apply a layer. For dark wooden doors you may need to use a fine sandpaper and give a gentle rub of the dried undercoat and reapply another coat.

The top coat of gloss or vinyl satin can now be applied, taking care to check over completed areas to remove drips and paint build-ups.

There are technics for painting doors to help reduce runs and these will be posted very soon.

The picture attached shows a good order in which to paint your door.

We cover painting and decorating in Middlesex, Surrey, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire (please see the links below)

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Laying turf, a users guide.

Laying turf

Getting started.
Turf can be laid all year round, however frosty conditions should be avoided and laying turf in extended periods of hot and dry weather will require additional care and attention.
Only a few tools are needed to lay turf; a wheelbarrow, a rake, a long knife, a spade, some planks, a garden hose and a sprinkler.


Your new turf will grow best when your soil is prepared in such a way as to encourage deep, rapid rooting. Turf needs just four things (in the proper proportions) to grow; sunlight, air, water and nutrients. Grass plants obtain three of these essential factors from the soil; air, water and nutrients. You must prepare your soil, the quality of the soil and its preparation will greatly affect the quality of the lawn. The correct depth of soil with the correct structure will ensure that the grass roots penetrate evenly and deeply. This will make the lawn more drought resistant, a more efficient water and nutrient user and will lead to a denser sward of grass plants which helps to crowd out weeds and gives a more visually appealing lawn. Poor soil and poor preparation will cause turf to deteriorate over time.

Calculating how much turf and topsoil you require

To calculate how much turf is required, measure the length and width of the area to be turfed, multiply one by the other to give you the amount of rolls required. Measuring in metres is easiest as each standard roll of turf covers 1m². Then add 5% for shaping etc

To calculate how much topsoil is required, measure the length, width and depth of the area to be covered, multiply these together to give you the volume required.

Remove the existing lawn using a turf cutter, which are available from all reputable hire shops or a spade and some hard work.

Preparation.
You need a minimum of 100mm (4"), ideally 150mm (6") of good soil (the deeper the better). The soil should be loosely turned over and free from surface stone, clods, other debris and perennial weeds.
Digging over or rotovating the soil before laying turf is essential. Once the soil has been loosened it should then be lightly compacted. The best way to do this is to walk over the whole area and then again at right angles to the first direction. Then rake the surface to a fine tilth and make sure that the surface is level. This may take some time, but it is worth it, as if the surface is uneven it will result in your lawn being uneven, which will have an adverse impact on the appearance of the lawn.
Ideally you should water the soil a couple of days before your turf arrives. Not only will this provide water for the roots of the turf, it can also cause the prepared soil to settle which can then be raked level again just before the turf arrives.


Laying the turf
Turf should be laid out immediately, as when it is rolled up it is effectively slowly dying as the leaves are not receiving any sunlight.
Start laying the turves, preferably along a straight edge, butting closely end to end. On subsequent rows stagger the joints brickwork fashion. Planks should be placed on newly laid turves for walking along and working from.
Lightly firm down the turves with the head of a rake or piece of wood to ensure good contact between the turves and the soil. Never use a roller on freshly laid turf.
Always push turf into a joint; never stretch the turves by pulling them. Any remaining cracks can be filled with a light soil and tamped down.
The turf can be simply cut using a long knife or hand saw cutting spade around edges and features.


Watering your new lawn is the single most important step you need to take to establish a beautiful and healthy lawn.
Always water newly laid turf immediately and for several days after laying until the turf is firmly rooted. On hot days, you may need to commence watering large lawns prior to laying all the turf.
Ensure that the new lawn is never short of water and that the water has percolated through to the underlying soil. Lift the corners of the turf to check the soil below.
Water repeatedly until the turf is well established.
If rainfall is experienced you still need to check that the lawn is receiving sufficient water.
First thing in the morning or in the evening are ideal times to water your new turf so that less water is lost evaporation.
Once established, occasional watering during dry periods should be adequate.


Be prepared to mow your new lawn within as little as 3 days, if this can be done without disturbing the turf. If turf is dislodged, replace it and allow the turf more time to establish before recommencing mowing.
Don’t delay. Mowing encourages establishment, however most people wait too long before mowing. Turf will accept light traffic almost immediately, although it is recommended that you keep off it other than for mowing for the first few weeks.
Never remove more than one third of the grass blade length.
For the first few cuts remove just the top quarter of the grass blade. Over the next few cuts gradually lower the mowing height down to 25mm (1").
Alternate the direction in which you mow your lawn.
Clippings do not have to be collected if they are minimal, provided sunlight is reaching the blades of grass. Clippings in small amounts return nutrients to the soil encouraging a healthy lawn.

Sowing a new lawn.

Sowing a new lawn

Prepare the site
Dig the area and remove large stones and roots of perennial weeds. Add Enriched Lawn Soil to improve the water-holding capacity and structure of the soil. Level and firm the surface by raking and treading over the surface.
Fallow the site
Allow the dormant weed seeds to germinate and after a couple of weeks kill off this top growth with Weedol 2. Apply a general fertiliser to the surface and rake in while you level again. A balanced plant food ensures quick establishment of new grass.
Sow the seed
Wait until the soil is evenly moist. The sowing rate is 35g/sq.m (35g = a large handful). Sow half the seed from left to right and the rest from top to bottom to achieve even coverage. Rake the seed into the surface and ensure the soil remains moist until germination occurs.
Keep the soil moist
In autumn and early spring rains should keep the soil evenly moist. In dry weather water the seed occasionally in the evenings.
After care
Germination will be seen in 2-3 weeks depending on temperature. Lightly trim the grass to a minimum of 4cm when it is 5-8cm (2-3”) long overall. Then mow every couple of weeks gradually reducing the cutting height to 2.5cm (1”). Wait at least six months before applying a lawn food.

Untidy edges.
Untidy lawn edges, where the grass is growing into the surrounding borders, are easy to correct. Simply use a pair of lawn-edging shears to cut away any long grass that is beginning to encroach into the borders. Ideally, you should do this after every mowing.
If this seems hard work, which it isn’t, or you have a lot of edging to do, many line trimmers have a head that can rotate through 90° and so be used as an edger. Most will have a roller guide to ensure you cut in the right place and so tidy up your lawn edges beautifully.

Uneven lawn edges.
If the lawn edges are generally ragged and uneven, you can use a sharp spade or, better still, a half-moon edging iron to re-cut them. To ensure good, straight lines, use a short plank of wood or similar as a cutting guide. If you prefer perfect wavy edges, then use a garden hose, which can be used to map out your curves and again act as a cutting guide.
You may want to re-cut the edges once a year for the perfect looking lawn. This is especially true if your lawn sits on light, sandy soils as these crumble away easily.

Broken edges.
Broken edges not only make the lawn and garden look untidy, but they also make mowing and edging more difficult. To improve the look of your lawn and to make mowing easier, you should make some quick and easy repairs.
Use a sharp spade or half-moon edging iron to cut out a square section of turf that contains the broken edge. Undercut the turf to remove it and turn it around through 180 degrees, so that the broken edge is now within the lawn and one of the straight edges aligns with the lawn edge. Fill in the broken area with sieved garden soil or potting compost, level and re-seed.
Make sure you keep the grass seed well watered during dry periods and within no time at all you’ll have a perfect looking lawn with the crispest edges around.

Lawn edging.
Where grass continually grows into the border or where the lawn edges constantly look untidy and so make mowing difficult, you may want to consider installing a permanent physical lawn edge.
These are available from good garden centres and DIY stores and can be made from corrugated iron or, better still, plastic. These are driven into the soil along the side of the lawn and make a permanent edge that you can easily mow over.
Or, of course, you could install a brick edging, but this is more expensive and needs more time, effort and some bricklaying skills.

Lawn moss treatment

Moss treatment

A serious problem in spring and autumn that is most often found where drainage is poor and the lawn is in the shade. Moss is the name for a group of primitive non-flowering plants that quickly spread as a spongy mass on undisturbed soil.
They reproduce from millions of microscopic spores produced on the leaves that float away from the mother plant on rainwater.
When found in a lawn, moss is a good indicator that:
Ground remains wet for long periods
Nutrient level of the soil is low
Soil is compacted and lacks organic matter
Grass may be cut too short or even scalped down to bare earth
Area is shaded from regular sunshine
Burning off moss with a suitable lawn treatment is easy, but unless some of the conditions that favour the plant are changed, then the moss will return, springing up from spores that remain on the soil surface.
Apply a lawn treatment containing a mosskiller and then try to remove the causes. Spiking will improve drainage and over-seeding with a grass seed mixture especially for shaded areas will improve the vigour of the lawn.

How to treat moss.
Don’t try to rake out the moss before it has been killed by a lawn treatment because this will only spread the spores around and make matters worse. Then rake out the debris. Now comes the hard bit. To prevent the moss from returning you need to take action to improve the conditions for the grass and make it inhospitable for the moss.

Mowing
Check the cutting height of your mower. Never scalp a lawn too short. This will weaken the grass and leave the soil open to moss invasion. Where moss is a problem leave the grass so that it is at least 2.5cm (1”) long at all times. Mow regularly, at least once a week, to encourage the spread of grass plants. In autumn and winter leave the grass even longer. See recommended cutting heights in our lawn cutting section.
Drainage
Improve drainage so the soil doesn’t remain permanently wet. This means spiking the affected area to let in air, improve drainage and generally reduce the compaction of the soil. There are two methods. For slight moss problems drive a garden fork into the area at 15cm (6”) intervals as deep as possible. Where returning moss is a continual problem use a hollow tine tool that can be driven into the lawn to remove plugs of soil at regular intervals. These plugs need to be brushed off the lawn and the holes filled with good soil. This enriched dressing will improve the organic content of the soil, improve drainage and reduce compaction. As a result, roots of grass plants will be encouraged to root even deeper and the grass should become thicker and healthier.
Avoid watering the lawn in summer unless the grasses are wilting from lack of moisture. If watering is essential, spike the area with a garden fork to reduce run-off and to ensure good drainage of any excess water. In areas that get water-logged regularly you will need to build a soak-away system to take away any excess water. This could be a simple soak-away sunk at the lowest point of the lawn. Dig a hole 60cm (2ft) square and 1 metre (1yd) deep. Fill the bottom 60cm with broken bricks and other rubble – top this with a 15cm layer of small stones topped off with a layer of free-draining top soil. If the lawn still remains wet, then you may need to dig out gravel tunnels 30 cm down which will naturally take water from the lawn to the soak-away.

Remove shade
Wherever possible cut back branches of trees and reduce the height of hedges to allow the sun to reach all areas of the lawn. Sun and wind will dry out the soil surface and moss will therefore be discouraged. If shade can’t be reduced, bite the bullet and turn this area of lawn into a bed and plant up with shade loving plants.

Feeding
Starved grass can’t dominate the playing field of your lawn unless it receives some supplementary energy. Feeding the lawn in spring, again in the summer and finally with an autumn dressing will help no end. It helps grass to strengthen over-winter and control any existing moss that would otherwise spread throughout the dark days of winter. A well-fed lawn is thick, strong and vigorous because it encourages the growth of grasses and inhibits the growth of moss.

Aerating
In autumn take out plugs of soil with a hollow tine tool and brush Enriched Lawn Soil into the holes that have been created and leave a thin layer of the material on the soil surface so this can be pulled into the ground by worms. This is especially beneficial on light sandy soils that are shallow.

Reseeding
Where bare patches have occurred as the moss dies off, re-seed the area with a shade tolerant grass seed mix.
Rake the soil to make a fine seed bed and sprinkle the selected grass seed over the area lightly. Cover the seed with good soil and keep moist until the grass seed germinates. If the whole lawn is thin, then over-seed the complete lawn with a sprinkling of this grass seed applied in the autumn or spring. In just a few weeks you will have a thick, dark green lawn that will be strong enough to fight off moss problems.

Lawn weed treatments

Weed treatment

Treating weeds.
Good management of the lawn including regular feeding and correct mowing will encourage a thicker, greener lawn vigorous enough to repel serious invasion by weeds and even moss.
However, seeds will blow in from other areas of the garden and bird droppings will also contain weed seeds, so keep a regular eye out for weed problems, and deal with them as soon as you see them.
Getting rid of lawn weeds isn’t necessarily a matter of digging them out. Thankfully, selective lawn weedkillers that kill weeds without harming the grass are available. So there’s no excuse for a lawn full of dandelions, daisies, buttercups and white clover. Treating the average sized lawn (100 sq.m) with a lawn treatment takes around 10 minutes and can cost less than £10 to feed, weed and control moss in one simple application.

Lawn weeds are a major headache that can stop you fully enjoying your lawn. A strong, healthy and well-fed lawn will be able to deal with weeds and moss far better than one that isn’t fed and looked after properly.

Every year up to a quarter of the grass in the lawn can die, more after a cold, wet winter. Overseeding – sowing new grass seed into the existing lawn – can rejuvenate the lawn and bring it back to life.
Overseeding improves the lawn’s appearance and by increasing the density of the grass you will also reduce weed and moss invasion.

Trim the edges of the lawn whenever you mow to keep crisp lines that clearly show you care for your lawn.
Cut lawn edges with a half-moon edging iron to ensure they look neat and well shaped.
Scarify with a spring-tine rake to remove dead grass, thatch and other debris that will otherwise prevent healthy grass growth.
On heavy clay soils, aerate the lawn in early spring with a garden fork or hollow-tined aerator to improve drainage and help reduce waterlogging problems and so make the grass grow better.
After aerating, add a top dressing to further improve drainage and ensure healthy grass growth.
Water the grass if it desperately needs it. Water thoroughly so the roots are well watered. If you just wet the top you will encourage roots at the surface, which are much more vulnerable to drought damage.