Improving soil in raised beds

jane5119

Hi
I am new to gardening and attempted growing vegetables in raised beds this year. I’ve just cleared the old plants as I want to plant seedlings for next year. What should I add to the soil to replenish the nutrients and to give the plants a helping start

Many thanks 

Dovefromabove

Hello @jane5119 and welcome to the forum 

What soil/compost etc did you put in the beds to start with, and what's the drainage like?

jane5119

We put in a mixture of sand compost and being rich soil improver. This year we had courgettes and strawberries in the two beds and carrots!

Obelixx

Vegetable crops are usually grown in rotation as some, such as potatoes need rich soil, others, such as beans need the moisture retention provided by plenty of manure and/or garden compost and some, such as carrots, will fork if the soil is too rich.   

Rotation also helps stop the build up of diseases and pests in certain crops.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=124 

When growing veg at home I always add well-rotted garden compost to the soil before planting as it improves the health of beneficial soil organisms and thus improves fertility and crops.  I save manure for hungry, thirsty plants like courgettes, squashes and pumpkins.

I don't grow potatoes or sweetcorn here as it's too dry and the only bean I can grow is broad bean as it's planted in late autumn and gets to decent size by early spring and before the heat and droughts start again.   Those are the only seeds I sow direct.  Everything else is sown in modules in seed trays and grown on before being planted out so I know they have a good root system already.  I also buy small plugs of veggie plants such as broccoli, Savoy cabbage, beetroot....

jane5119

Thank you for your advice. I wondered why our carrots were such strange shapes!!!