Why Fixed Beds?

Let us compare growing vegetables in rows with growing them in fixed beds.

The Row-based allotment

In a traditional vegetable garden, the plants are laid out in rows, with enough space left between the rows for the gardener to walk up and down to gain access to the plants.  This constant to-ing and fro-ing between the rows inevitably compacts the soil. Which is why, for the traditional gardener, it is necessary to dig the plot over every winter. 

And in terms of the allotmenteer’s daily routine there can be a point to this.  It can give him a purpose to visit the allotment at a time of year when not much else is happening there. He needs an excuse to get out from under his wife’s feet for a couple of hours every day. Digging the allotment provides just that excuse.

The Fixed Bed Allotment

Now compare with a fixed bed allotment, which I suppose should more accurately be called a fixed path allotment. The paths are where the gardener walks, never the beds. If you never tread on the beds, the soil does not get compacted and therefore there is no need to dig in the winter. 

I don’t like digging!

While my neighbours are digging, I go away on a winter holiday in the sun!

The Size of Beds and Paths

I have designed our beds so that we can reach the middle of each bed comfortably from the path. As Mrs Spud and I are both quite tall, we use a width of 5 ft. I can easily reach 2ft 6in to the middle of a bed from the path. If for any reason I want to be on, rather than beside, the bed, I use an old door to kneel on, which spreads my weight over a large area and avoids compaction. The beds are about 12 ft long.

So what about the path?  Well, if you used old carpet to mulch the allotment initially, to suppress weeds, you can cut the carpet into 2 ft strips afterwards and use it as the base for paths – an 18 inch path dug in 3 inches on either side. (I find you need this 3 inches to prevent any persistent weeds from invading from underneath the carpet.)

Fixed Beds or Raised Beds?

In principle it is more important for my beds to be fixed than raised. However, after just a few seasons, I have found that the soil in the beds is higher than the level of the path. This is inevitable given that I am regularly adding manure and compost to the soil.  I designed them as fixed beds, but they are evolving into raised beds.  

With raised beds there is the problem of loose soil tumbling down onto the path below. So I have started edging my beds.  I am slowly scavenging old planks and using them to prevent the soil falling onto the paths. Sometimes I use bought decking boards. Then I can surface the path with sawdust or wood chippings. (We get regular free deliveries of this to the allotment throughout the winter from local tree surgeons.)  

Preparing for Fixed Beds

It is important to deal with all perennial weeds from the outset, either by digging or, as I have described elsewhere, by mulching. In our allotment mulching was a more effective method than digging. Old-timers suggested that it wasn’t necessary to remove the weeds at all, we should just dig them in instead.  We tried it on one bed. That one was the worst of all. We were still digging out yards of couch grass roots two years later.

Other Advantages of Fixed Beds

(a)   Less waste   When you add manure, or compost, or lime, or whatever to the soil you add it only to the area used for growing, and not to the area used for walking.

(b)   The Worms do the Digging   I have found that I don’t even need to dig in the compost. I simply lay it on top and after a couple of months it is gone – the worms have dug it in for me. I put this down to less compaction.

(c)   Avoids Spreading Disease    Some of my neighbours have got club-root – a particularly nasty disease that affects the brassica family: cabbage, cauliflower, brussel sprouts etc.  “Once you have got it you can’t get rid of it” I was told. “You carry it around the plot on your shoes. It spreads everywhere.”

I don’t have club root. And as I don’t tread on my soil, I am not going to carry it into the allotment on my boots and spread it onto the beds.

(d)  Helps Planning, Organization & Record-keeping   Having beds rather than rows makes it easier to keep track of which veg was where when, so that you can rotate your crops more easily.
(e)   Closer Spacings   If you do not need to leave space between the plants to walk up and down, you can afford to plant them more closely.  Some books suggest using the suggested seed-packet distance between plants in rows , and putting all the plants that distance apart in all directions.  I have found it better to leave enough space between rows in the bed to push a hoe. I have far too many annual weed seeds in my soil to plant any closer. Still, in most cases, I still get far more out of each square yard in my allotment than my row-based neighbours.