Ricard with an H, my father who was a very keen gardener always grew our vegetables on "mounds", that is, all the beds were raised about 10"/12" above the surrounding paths. So, I suppose, they were really raised beds but without any solid edges. It always worked well, but, as you say, the planting was restricted to the flat part of the bed with the sloping sides being bare.

We had the first 2 courgettes with tea tonight . Only 2.5 inches long each but the were sooooooooooooo tasty. Put them in the Spag Bol and my girls (who only usually like 'deep fried battered' courgette or 'grated on salad but don't tell them what they are' courgette) love 'em Got some more following on behind and they are already bigger than the 2 I picked!

Also got 2 dozen tiny chillies starting on my numerous plants and dozens of flowers across all 4 vaireties and on my sweet peppers also

Yay

VPM
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I've put quite a lot of organic matter on my beds which is how they have become mounds. My soil is quite heavy clay not too far down but now I've got a foot or so of lovely crumbly stuff. The mounds are flattened but I do manage to plant some stuff of the sides - things like salads and parsely. I don't find that the soil washes down too much when I water ( not that I can remember when that last was ) Mind you I do water carefully using a rose on the can even though it can be time consuming if something needs a really good soaking. I never walk on the beds so the soil doesn't become compacted and apart from forking over in the autumn I seem to do less and less digging each year unless I'm incorporating a lot of manure.

This is where I need to go and have already started with a second plot, i'm fairly sure my free supply of cow-poo is safe from contamination though I bought some clover branded manure assuming Clover would have tested.

How soon after a really good digging and forking can I plant potted plants ? I have to find space for comfrey and whilst I do have the choice of the slope on the Pembrokeshire banks which has to be fertile because of the annual dead matter that rots down onto it. Also, I have banks that face east.

I already glyphosated sections of annuals and grasses ready for the comfrey. Also, I have my first batch of nettle brew. Exceptionally smelly and from I read in my RHS allotment guide, very good stuff but I do have a history of being a bit too keen with feed so i'm scared.

Hi westi, glallotments, alan r, vpm , et al.
I am in Albury, almost halfway between Melbourne and
Sydney. My district is cool/mountain - one hour to skiing from here.
But the last two years we had rain after ten years of drought.
Now they forecast another El Nino ( = drought) and we might get
another ten in a row again ! So home veg gardening is risky.
Length of day and temperature govern planting here, and I have four
distinct seasons, but summer is always 35 + for two months.
So we tend to use the autumn winter spring and rest in summer.

Good thing for the day today – picked huge bunch of parsley to
put through the blender and freeze, it’s great to have some on hand
to add to a loaf of bread in the bread-maker, and add to pasta sauces.
Otherwise things are cold and sodden outdoors so I bide my time
reading more about veg gardening (and watching a bit of the
Tour de France).

A third of the way through and we've only had 4.07 ins of rain so far this July compared with 14.36 ins in July 2009, so comparatively dry. Oh - just noticed, much cooler this July.

not to bad this year on my allotment,sunflowers have gone mad,and any seeds i have put in have come up really quick which is really good.

Hi there hzbzsz, just three miles from me is the English village of Albury, perhaps the namesake of your place?

Just spent nearly eight hours outside without getting rained on.

Weeded onions, root crops, cleared cabbage patch, netted it, planted around a hundred assorted brassicas, green kale, re kale green cabbages winter & summer, red cabbages, brussel sprouts, purple sprouting two varieties.

Picked a couple of pounds of raspberries.

Just picked 35lb of gooseberries, which are now washed, topped and tailed and in the freezer. That's potentially over five gallons of wine waiting to be made (and drunk).

Shallots show no sign of withering yet.

Hi Peter,
Yes I do believe that Albury was named after an
English village in Kent, which it "resembled" !!
My imagination is not quite good enough to picture
this comparison from 1839 - ish ! We do have a
lovely botanical garden dating from 1887, isn't Kent
renown for gardens?
My positive thing for today is that I have picked lots of
broccoli side-shoots from some old plants, they have grown
in just the last week. Yummy, very nutty flavour.

Picked my first cucumber yesterday - wonderful melon smell and taste that you can't get even with the best bought cucumber.
Spotted the first red flower spikes on the runners at last.

Today the school garden supplied lettuce and purple podded peas to the Reception Class for their Teddybears picnic

VPM
x

Two perfect pak choi from the polytunnel last night. Not a slug hole on either