Posts Tagged ‘Container Comparison’

Making a Raised Vegetable Bed the Potty Innovations Way

So you have decided you would like to grow your own vegetables and have even thought about what you would like to plant, but now you are looking for a bed to cultivate your produce!

Building your own raised bed doesn’t have to be mission impossible any more. The Cultivation Station Raised Bed System from Potty Innovations allows you to get setup in minutes rather than days, leaving you more time to get on with the fun of planting.

But you are biased, you would say that!

Well, yes but with good reason! A popular choice amongst many gardeners involves the use of chunky railway sleepers, which although aesthetically pleasing are not ideal as they require back-breaking preparation, huge expense and great deal of time.

Unlike many other raised bed solutions, the Cultivation Station has the very best insulation properties and raises the bed at least 30cm off the ground making them more accessible for you and lets be fair, also more of a challenge (we live in hope) to the midnight snail snacker.

	Raised Bed Comparison
	Railway Sleepers	Cultivation Station
Space and Shapes	Large, but restricted in choice of shapes without extra work	Flexible, large or small with a variety of starter kits. Modular system allows for customisation to suit any shape or size of garden. Use on patio, decking, balcony or garden. Defined planter sections allow for easy crop rotation.
Aesthetics	Natural look, characterful.	Smooth, available in green or granite effect. Unique eye catching design.
Durability	Strong and durable, but will require treating with a preservative.	Durable, requires no preservative, splinter free and will not rot. Is, like most things, susceptible to the strimmer which may graze the finish.
Assembly	Requires knowledge of joinery, power tools and brute strength. May require professional help	Using firm pressure, just slide together.
Ordering	Sourcing material and delivery can be very costly	Order online, reasonable delivery charge and receive order within 5 working days.
Material	Strong, natural but requires treating.	Very best insulation for roots, lightweight (98% air), retains moisture, 100% recyclable.

 

Build your Cultivation Station Raised Vegetable Bed

What will I need?

If you are looking to save space, try the Cultivation Station 8 Piece (compact starter kit), measuring just over a metre square, this is our smallest kit which can be assembled in minutes without the need for tools or glue. You can order this Starter Kit online for as little as £49.36

This kit and other larger ones are all available via our online retailer SCA Online, we even sell the planters separately so you can go crazy and design your own!

Our Planter Dimensions

Standard Planters
600mm long by 300mm wide, and 300mm deep (24” x 12” x 12”).
Weighs 530 grams (19 ounces) when empty.
Holds 25 litres of soil or compost.

Corner Planters
300mm long by 300mm wide, and 300mm deep (12” x 12” x 12”).
Weighs 285 grams when empty.
Holds 12 litres of soil or compost.

Where will I put my Rasied Bed?

Don’t do what the Virgin Gardener did, instead before you begin think about where you will place your raised bed as once it is full of soil it will be more difficult to move.

• Do you want it close to your kitchen?
• Pick an area with plenty of sunlight (as much as the UK will allow!)
• Look for a reasonably flat area –  chasing your veg down the hill isn’t much fun!
• Place in a sheltered area as strong winds which may damage new shoots
  • A wall of your home
  • A bushy hedge
  • A fence

The delivery: What’s in the box?

Once your new delivery of joy and happiness has arrived, you will find four standard planters and four corner planters.
Corner planters have a slightly smaller planting area but allow for different shape construction and are ideal (but not exclusively) for companion planting to encourage natural pest control.

Assembling your new 8 Piece Compact Cultivation Station

Each Cultivation Station planter has a snug tongue and groove interlock which allows the planters to slide together forming a strong and durable planting area.

Putting it together really is child’s play, in fact if you have little ones why not get them involved too? All of our products are child friendly, they are super lightweight and splinter free, we think it’s important that children enjoy growing.

Step 1

On a flat surface begin by aligning each planter ensuring there is a snug fit between the tongue and groove interlock.

Step 2

Placing firm pressure, simply slide the planter down until it is locked firmly and snugly in place.

Step 3

Continue this with the rest of the configuration until you reach the last piece which you will need to ensure snug fits on both sides. That’s it! All done.

Once assembled the 8 Piece starter unit weighs only 3.2kg, just lift it up and place it in your intended position (now you couldn’t do that with railway sleepers).

The planters can be used for germination or growth of seedlings prior to planting out, and remember to use the central area for growing deeper rooted vegetables.

Happy Planting!

So we decided we should really get some winter things, plants that is and unsurprisingly there wasn’t really a lot of choice. What does like the cold?

Anyway upon deciding that the local garden centre didn’t really have what we wanted, we wandered off to the local plant nursery down the road. We spent what felt like the next ten minutes reading the backs of all the seed packets out loud to each other, placing extra emphasis upon the ‘when to sow’ guidelines.

VG: Carrots, nope, sow in January
Rich: Ooh what about this, erm no sorry that’s harvest in Autumn not sow.

And it went on….

After a period of time the previous tranquillity of the shop silence was soon broken due to our nattering, and the helpful man behind the counter must have decided that ‘now’ would be a good time to interrupt us and ask if we needed any help. Good job he did really, stopping in mid sentence we stood there with all manner of seed packets in our hands as he informed us we could only grow onions, garlic, broad beans but we were welcome to take a punt on the pre-grown cabbages in the hot house.

Well broad beans were not even to be considered. Really not a big fan of them I must admit, but I was more than happy with the onions and garlic. We decided the cabbage ‘punt’ offer sounded like a challenge we couldn’t refuse as our Cultivation Station has excellent insulation properties, and let’s be fair you can’t really go wrong for eight plants under a £1!

Once we got back home we realised that we were actually short on growing space, certainly for the amount of bulbs/plants we had just picked up. Consequently we decided to have a little growing experiment by planting some in the Cultivation Station and some in the plastic container to see which containers result in the best cabbage.

The remainder of the plants have gone to Daisyboots who I have also tasked to take up the cabbage growing challenge.