introduction

Hi, I'm new on this site.
I'm a keen vegetable gardener living with my huisband in Belgium. I want to start growing most of my veg. in raised beds, filled with super rich compost, like me Bartholomue (probably not well writen, sorry), partly here, partly in the south of France. So partly in a rather cool and wet climat, and partly in a rather het and dry climat. That will be an adventure!
The Potatoes, unions, pumpkins, coles and other long growing veggies I will grow in my garden in Belgium in traditional beds. Frequently eaten veggies like salades, tomatoes,spring unions, herbus like coriander, parsley, chives,basil, etc I will grow in both countries and special warmth living veggies will grow in France.
That's the plan; now I'll have to carry it out!
First of all I need to make the raised beds on a slope on very poor, chalky ground, full of weeds and stones. I want to start with 3 beds of 1,20 by 2,40 meters and see how it suits me.
I hope I'l find lots of ideas and advices on the way to my (2) vegetable gardens.

Hello, Paula, from Atlanta, GA (southeastern US).


Glad you've joined us.  Yes, we'll give you all the help we can.

Do you have a copy of All New Square Foot Gardening (2nd Edition)?  That's where I would start.

You might also look thru the archives to see what kind of beds folks have built on slopes to make it easier on you in the long run.

We like pictures.  It helps us help you.  And we like to cheer people on.

Welcome again.  Can't wait to see how your garden develops!

from the cold northeast of Maine, USA. 
I'm sure you'll find some threads about building beds on slopes/hills.  I've seen a few here myself.  Just use the 'search' box upper left.
You'll have a unique experience growing in both Belgium and France.
Enjoy.

Paula,  Welcome to the Forum for California, US.  One of many great things about SFG is that you don't have to worry about the poor native soil.  Finding, peat moss, vermiculite or perlite, and 5 different sources of compost with composted farm manure being one of them, will probably the hardest part for you.

I did a Bing search and found these 2 photos.  I liked them because all of the interiors of the boxes can be reached from the outside of the boxes.  One has trellises. The other has nice wide isles between the boxes.

Thank you for your kind reactions. My English is a bit like the constable's in Allo Allo (well known Brittish TV series). My automatic (Dutch) text controle has its own opinion on what I mean to write. So hot becomes het etc. Sorry about that.
I do not (yet) have the book of Mel Bartholomew, but I do have different books about the same subject, among others one from a big admiror of his, who addapted his work on conditions in the Netherlands and the Flanders in Belgium (Jelle's Makkelijke Moestuin- Jelle Medema). So I'm quite familiar with the principles of a square foot garden. But not on gardening on slopes, because our countries are very very flat. Finding peat and vermiculite will be no problem; indeed compost from 5 different sources is, but I'll find my way.
The main reason for starting with raised beds was in fact my back: after 4 operations I have to be very careful
Thank you for the pictures and advices!
Just one more question: do we start on the lowest part of the slope and work our way up, or do we start at the top?

With back problems, I would suggest narrower beds, maybe 3 ft wide instead of 4.  You need to be able to reach easier.  And raised up from the ground would be even better.  Things like tabletop beds.  Just enter the word in the 'Search' box on the upper left and you'll surely find some threads on those.
Good luck.

Paula,  If you have back problems, you may want to consider table top beds.  I am 5'3" and these are 2' high and only 2' wide.  

Sanderson, is the base of the SFG bed plywood are  something else?

I found this thread on table top SFG beds.

Building a Table Top SFG...some ideas

Plywood with holes drilled in it. My husband used 1/2" plywood but I would recommend 3/4" or 1". Hole a minimum of 3/4. Weed fabric was placed over the plywood to prevent the Mel's Mix from falling through.

sanderson wrote:Plywood with holes drilled in it.  My husband used 1/2" plywood but I would recommend 3/4" or 1".  Hole a minimum of 3/4.  Weed fabric was placed over the plywood to prevent the Mel's Mix from falling through.

thank you.

Hello Paula ,
Welcome to  , " All New Square Foot Gardening. 

I too have spinal challenges so ended up having purpose build beds that are only 900 mm wide from outside edge to outside edge , they are also 900 mm high as this is a good height for me to lean on the wall and still be able to reach into the middle of the beds.( I'm 1.68 m tall )

 Occasionally I can & do stretch right across but usually end up paying for that foolish move over the next couple of days with severe back pain.

 My beds have an auto watering system as well which helps tremendously as I don't stand still for long whilst holding things like hose pipes .

These picture are the basic idea of my beds when they were being constructed by builders five and three years ago ( ran out of money after stage one and had to save up for stage two ) . Being made of impervious red engineering bricks they should be good for 30 or more years .




 The bed above is a permanent onion & garlic bed and is about 12 square feet in area .

Plantoid

That is super lovely, I love working with brick. I have one bed to go..maybe I can develop some ideas from your creations

beautiful, awesome beds, planetoid. thanks for sharing.

+1!  Those look terrific!

AtlantaMarie wrote:+1!  Those look terrific!

+1
Plantoid, I believe this is the first time I have seen a photo of your beautiful brick beds.

Plantoid, my backpains are much less than yours I assure you. My chronic pain is in my left lower leg, mostly when I walk. Maybe you wouldn't be so tempted to stretch to the other end of the bed if they were 120 cm wide in stead of 90.... I've been searching for years for a " golf club shaft protector" (read in a book about sfg), but never found one. It would make sowing in the middle of the bed much easier, they say. I guess they don't protect their golf clubs here in Europe.
I always try to work sitting on a stool of whitch I have several placed in the vegg. garden (and quickly have to place inside when it starts to rain .
I must say: your beds look fantastic. I wish I could build like that. And they are conveniently high as well. Mine are just 20 to 25 cm, which also makes a big difference of course.
For watering I have several waterbutts around the vegg. garden. I water the beds with 5 L cans. That takes a lot of going up and down each and every bed, but hey, I'm not paid by the hour, am I !
I throw the weeds with seeds in the nextdoor chicken run. The chicks are indeed fond of chickweed, of whitch we always have plenty.

Well, thank you all for your kind words and advices. I feel very welcome already!