"Mike & Karen" wrote in message
...

I was thinking of raised beds filled with nice compost (next door has
gave up on his veg plot and now has nice raised beds) but the plot
slopes so it would be a bit too challenging for me.

A sloping site is brilliant for raised beds so long as you're not talking
North Face of the Eiger...

We had dreadful problems with heavy clay and poor drainage. The raised beds
were dug-in up-slope and raised above ground downslope. A gap was left
between the timbers and the clay and this was filled with 3/4 chippings to
divert the floods around the beds.
It has been possible to grow whatever we fancy ever since - just adjust the
soil in the bed to suit your crop. Since the soil in the beds has never been
trodden on so you can literally make planting pockets with your fingers. And
the raised bed frames support polythene for cloches or bird netting -
whatever the crop desires.
Do it! The little bit of effort up-front is reclaimed over and over again in
the years that follow.