"80/20" wrote in message
oups.com...
I have a small lawn that is not it's best because it is used in the
summer as a patio area, the table, chairs and umbrella stand all turn
the lawn yellow.

I am thinking of digging it up and covering the area will gravel,
after putting down a mulch sheet.

I also would like to put triangular raised beds on the 4 corners to
grow veg in.

Questions:
How high would you make the beds?
I have plenty of home made compost, could this be used to fill the
beds?
What crops would you recommend?

TIA
Steve

others have commented on the gravel business, presumably if you put down a
really thick layer of gravel you will be able to bed the table and chairs
etc in that however getting it perfectly level may be a problem. As an
example, try getting a deck chair perfectly level at the beach. Depends what
you want. Bigger draw back to gravel I think is compaction from repeated
usage, you will periodically need to top it up, and organic matter working
its way in to the gravel and decomposing, thus providing areas fro weeds to
grow. It is damned difficult to get dirt out from amongst gravel.

As for the garden, I put 5 in last year and have found them really good.
Much better than standard beds for growing things. I used garden sleepers
and made them either 300 or 400 mm high. That is a handy height for me but
still gives the option of building up again in future. It is more expensive
than using timber however I was under 'instructions' to landscape the area
which meant laying down pavers as well (now that is even more difficult to
get level than chairs in gravel). When building the beds consider what the
backing will be. If using timber you can simply whip up a 3 sided box. I was
putting some against a fence and didn't want to pay for twice the amount of
sleepers than necessary so I nailed various backings to the fence
(firboplank and clearlite roof sheeting) and built the beds out from there.
The soil and planting all but hides the fibro/clearlite sheets.

In terms of what you put in as growing medium, depends on when you want to
start sowing. If your compost is ready and nicely broken down you can likely
use that unless it is fairly lumpy and sticks in clumps. If the latter small
seeds may get lost (least some of mine have in the past in lumpy compost) so
you can either transplant seedlings or lay a dressing of soil over the top.
I did that in all my new beds and seeded straight in to the soil. Quickly
the plants roots dug down in to the nutrient rich layers underneath. If you
have not enough compost to made a decent growing depth you could chuck
organic matter in to the bottom of the beds and top up the higher levels
with compost. In no particular order I bunged in partly rotten horse poop,
coffee grounds, spoilt hay, compost (fresh and finished), grass clippings
and kitchen waste. I left it a few months and my good mates the worms dealt
to the rest. Likely if you had a good layer of compost (and earth if
necessary) over the top of fresh stuff like grass clippings, ripped up
newspaper and household waste you could plant straight away and the stuff
near the bottom will breakdown quite quickly.

As what to plant, my first plantings in the new beds were garlic (first time
I planted it), lettuce, spring onions, potatos and carrots. The lettuce has
been prolific and our main vegetable over summer. The SO very nice in asian
cooking and the garlic is being used now and has a stronger more pungent
odour than the stuff from the supermarket. The stuff I have dug up hasn't
had much success dring mind yet, mainly because it doesn't get a chance as I
use alot of it. Potatos were ok as were the carrots but the latter were more
for her who must be obeyed. Having 4 corner gardens you also have a ready
made system for crop rotation if you need it. I am only just starting to get
my head around it in my new set up.

rob