The first task is a new raised bed to add to the existing ones. I have always found it difficult to maintain a large area of veggies, but by dividing it into well-defined smaller beds, I find I can manage things better. It's probably psychological.
The wood for the frame needs to be protected from rot, so I paint it with two coats of a tar-based preservative paint. This seems to have worked well on the previous installations, and I had some of the paint left over from last year. I had to add white spirit to get it to soften up, but once I did that, there was enough for two coats. The frame is now ready to assemble and put out.
I also bought these smaller frames in kit form when a local garden centre was shutting down. I wouldn't normally buy anything like this - the wood is a bit feeble, and the frame usually retails at about €25, if I remember correctly. I figure that I could knock up a better one myself for the price of the wood. These ones were under a tenner each on sale, so I bought the remaining stock of two. They've been in the conservatory annoying Anita all Winter, so it was time to assemble them and put them outside.
I added rough compost from the heap, and then covered it with a thinner layer of sieved compost to make a good surface for seedlings.
I will use them this year as a nursery bed for onions and leeks. It used to be that I could plant onions in a seed tray and transplant them to their final positions once they got to about pencil thickness. I don't know what they put in French compost, or rather what they don't, because the onions just don't grow that big in it. So I figure to put them in a holding bed once they have germinated, and then I will plant them in their final homes a bit later.
Later on in the year I might use them as a bed for climbing beans, by putting some form of bean tent on top.
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