My wife and I started gardening in Fukuoka (Japan) in 2003. There was nothing but muddy clayey sloping land. At the beginning we made several structure such as steps and paths, and planted turf, fruit trees, roses, herbs etc.
In 2010, we visited several famous English gardens, including Sissinghurst Castle Garden, Mottisfont Abbey Garden and Hidcote Manor Garden. We were shocked by the glory of those gardens. Since then, we have been trying to make small but glorious gardens by ourselves.
At the beginning of October, we started to frame the raised beds in the potager with metal siding panels, and we have also rebuilt the raised bed frames that had pentagonal vegetable frames, completing the rebuild that we had planned for this year. The panels were repainted in blue-grey rather than beige, as I thought blue-grey was still a better colour than beige.
The triangular raised beds already have healthy seedlings that will flower next season.
The frames for the raised beds in the potager were made from two-by-four boards and plywood panels, but they did not last very long and had to be rebuilt every few years. After searching for a more durable, easy-to-make and inexpensive material, we turned our attention to metal siding panels used for the exterior walls of houses. As they are relatively lightweight and easy to cut, we decided to try using them to build the frame.
The panels are assembled using aluminium angles and stainless steel bolts and nuts. These were used for the previous assembly and have not rusted at all, so we reused them.
The raised bed is taller than before because of the wider panel width, but the thickness is thinner so it doesn't look so oppressive. We decided to keep the original beige colour of the panels and not paint them.
Today we would like to show you the wooden frames of the raised beds that we rebuilt last weekend. The photo below shows the potager in the morning sun.
The low raised beds had been re-framed two years ago because the wooden frames had become old and broken.
古くなって枠木が壊れてきたので、2年前に低いレイズドベッドは枠をつくりかえていました.
Nov 2019
Feb 2020
And the raised beds at the back were broken and about to collapse, so we rebuilt them. The frames here have been raised twice and are made up of three stacked boards.
そして、奥のレイズドベッドが壊れて今にも崩壊しそうになったので、今回作り直しました.
ここの枠は2回に渡って高さを上げたもので、板が3枚積み重なっています.
We started with the raised bed of dahlias and dug out the soil around the periphery of the frame. The frame was then removed.
まず、ダリアのレイズドベッドから始め、枠内の周辺部の土を掘り出しました. そして枠を外しました.
The plywood, painted blue-grey, was fixed in place using aluminium angles. A weed barrier was then placed inside.
Next up is the raised bed of asparagus. First we dug up the perennials and the seedlings of the nigella. It was a bit difficult to dig up the soil around the asparagus because of the large number of roots reaching the frame.
And the completion of the two deep raised beds. We started in the morning and finished in the evening. At 5 p.m., residents are reminded of the time by a chime played over community speakers. It is the melody of a nursery rhyme, encouraging children to go home with the crows as the sun is setting.
We replaced frames of the pentagonal raised beds in the potager.
This is the last replacement planned this winter season.
Other two high raised beds, in which vegs and flowers are growing, will be replaced next season.