The raised bed had about a dozen bean plants of different varieties. These cropped constantly over the summer. Beans grow well in Brussels and suit the lack of space. They grew particularly well with tomatoes and cucumbers.
Cucumbers 2015
Each of the support poles on the raised bed had a cucumber plant and each plant produced a couple of cucumbers. The cucumbers always do well in Brussels. These have grown too much, it is better to grow the smaller varieties and pick young fruit steadily throughout the summer. They grow well with tomatoes.
A mix of tomatoes 2015
The raised bed had 6 varieties of tomato plant. These are all small varieties of tomato which produce steadily over the summer. The tomato plants benefit from being planted in the partial cover of bean and cucumber leaves. This keeps the heavy rains of September off the plants when the blight occurs.
The raised bed crop 2015
The main crop of tomatoes, beans and cucumbers came from the raised bed in the garden. The 5m by 1m bed has an aluminium frame to the front supporting the integrated mix of plants at different levels. This stacking of plants at different height levels make full use of a small growing space.
Simple growing frame for tomatoes
This frame stands about 2 metres tall. It consists of aluminium tubing and plastic corner pieces. The tubing was bought in Brussels, the plastic fittings from the OC. The poles are driven about half a metre into the soil using a rubber mallet. This system requires deep heavier soil but the frame works well as …Read More about Simple growing frame for tomatoes
Last tomatoes of the year 2015
Early October has the last crop of tomatoes. The tomato blight in September was particularly hard this year, damaging a lot of plants. These vine tomatoes, grown on a 2 metre frame were planted away from the main crop in the garden and were less affected by blight. Grown under an over-hanging tree these plants …Read More about Last tomatoes of the year 2015