Vegetable patch

Denno666

I'm in the process of creating a vegetable patch/beds where a greenhouse used to be. Its not very big, but enough for 3 beds and a little path in between. I was hoping to grow potatoes in one bed. Do I need to physically separate the beds so that I can rotate crops every year, or is it ok if I just separate them at surface level?

Obelixx

It helps to have a wee access path between so you can get to the crops without standing on others but it only has to be as wide as your feet or maybe a plank you can put down to step on so  you don't compact the soil.

GemmaJF

You can just have a path between the areas. I try to 'jump' beds with potatoes if I can, so they are not right next to where they were the year before. Not easy to do with 3 beds. I use a rotavator, so in all it is easier to work my beds as one in the spring, so I have no permanent division between beds, division is just new paths that are formed as I fill the beds each year.

nick615

GemmaJF is exactly right.  This modern fad of raised beds means the pathways remain constant and are never used, including the nutrition they hold.  By rotating crops, their varying widths mean that last year's path is this year's bed and vice versa.

GemmaJF

This is my veg plot, as Obelixx stated on a traditional plot the paths form under boards as beds are worked, as nick615 says, the paths are not permanent, they get broken up each year. I generally have a 5 foot bed width with approximately 1 foot path that just fits well, but nothing is fixed about it.

Denno666

Thank you so much for your advice, it has really helped 🙂.