We spent early November altering our front garden and replacing the big raised bed we built in October 2013 with a larger, lower flower bed. In just over a week we moved tens of plants and around thirteen tonnes of soil. It was hard work but we are pleased with the end result.

The new raised bed, 27th November 2016

We built the original raised bed on top of concrete, as we didn’t have the funds to break up the drive. In spite of this, the bed was a success and after a year the plants were thriving. After three years the plants growing in it, including an Olive tree, a Salvia ‘Hotlips’, a Broom, a Rosemary bush, Lavender, Mexican Fleabane (Erigeron karvinskianus) and a Giant Feather Grass (Stipa gigantea), had knitted together to form a small patch of Mediterranean scrub. When I watered in hot dry spells in the summer, the scented shrubs released delicious wafts of perfume and reminded me of holidays in Corsica, Majorca, Provence and Greece.

So why did we decide to replace the raised bed? There were several reasons, including:

1. The bulbs I had planted in the raised bed didn’t do very well. The daffodils which looked so good in the first spring were soon crowded out by the growth of the shrubs and the  tulips, Anemone blanda and white Muscari didn’t have enough moisture to thrive.
2. We wanted to water as little as possible. The new bed is lower and will allow plant roots to reach far down into the sub-soil to gather water and nutrients.
3. The double red Midland Hawthorn trees on our road (Crataegus laevigata ‘Paul’s Scarlet’) are lovely but they are ninety years old and trees of similar age on nearby roads have been condemned by Norwich City Council and are in the process of being removed. We wanted to plant a medium sized tree in our front garden as an eventual replacement for the street trees at the front of our house, but the raised bed wasn’t deep enough to do this.
4. We wanted more space. The raised bed had a wide slab path around its perimeter, which we wanted to replace with a bigger growing area.

Key to our plans was hiring a contractor to break up the concrete. In April 2016 I asked my friend Sue Bell, who is a garden designer, for a recommendation and she suggested Ian Cooper of IFC Landscapes Ltd. We arranged for the work to be done at the start of November, when the plants could be moved easily in a semi-dormant state and Ian would have time to do the job.

With a week to go until the work was done, we dug out the plants and moved them onto the patio in the back garden. The following day we moved at least five tonnes of soil from the raised bed to the front drive and dismantled the edges of the raised bed. We put the sleepers to one side and rescued the nail plates.

Ian ordered a skip to hold the broken up concrete, which arrived on the Monday. He and a workmate arrived the next day and broke up the concrete. They did a very neat job and lifted and cut the slabs so that most could be reused. By lunchtime they had finished and we loosened the sub-soil, put the sleepers back as an edging to the new bed and shovelled the raised bed soil back. We ordered another two and a half tonnes of soil to top up the new bed, using a mix of topsoil and compost from G. Nicholls of Oaks Farm, Great Plumstead (01603 720224).

On the Friday the soil was delivered onto the drive and we shovelled it into the new bed. In the late morning and afternoon we replanted, spacing plants further apart and using some of the slabs to make a stepping stone path through the middle of the bed.

In the following week we planted a large, bare-rooted Oriental Hawthorn tree, Crataegus laciniata (also known as C. orientalis). It will provide a similar effect to the double red Midland Hawthorns but will also have edible and ornamental fruits. The leaves should provide food for any Hawthorn-eating insects and some of these will provide food for the birds.

Other newcomers to the front garden include three plants I bought at Norfolk Plant Heritage‘s Hethersett Plant Fair in August: a Honey Bush (Melianthus major), with lovely glaucous foliage and a mouth-watering whiff of peanut butter when bruised, Coronilla valentina subsp. glauca ‘Citrina’, with scented lemon-yellow pea flowers from late winter to spring, and Angels’ Fishing Rods (Dierama igneum), with arching wands of reddish pink flowers in summer.

I’ve also planted some more bulbs (Tulipa saxatilis ‘Lilac Wonder’ and Crocus chrysanthus  ‘Blue Pearl’) for early spring colour. I couldn’t resist adding a couple of Giant Echiums (Echium pininana). I may need to cover them with fleece to protect them from frosts. I have some spare plants in an unheated greenhouse, along with some Geranium maderense plants that I raised from seed this summer (from Ventnor Botanic Garden). I will plant these out in spring.

Work in progress (5th November 2016): the old raised bed has been removed and the concrete is ready to break up.

The Raised Bed Is Dead… Long Live The Raised Bed.