Raised beds may not be the answer. Sorry, what was the question?

The last couple of days have seen a dramatic increase in the readership of this blog. It is a state of affairs that obviously will not last and no doubt this time next week I will be addressing the usual (but much loved) audience of two old blokes and a Jack Russell. However, having got the attention of all you new but transient readers, I thought that it might be a good opportunity to bring to your notice a strange phenomena that is sweeping the land. I refer of course to the rash of so called "raised beds" that seems to be spreading across the nations allotment sites. There is a sensible look at raised bed growing here but in the meantime you can take it from the Freedom Pass Anarchist Agricultural Section that this now incredibly trendy system of growing might not be all that it's cracked up to be. The system has advantages if your plot has very heavy clay soil and of course raised beds are a boon to the disabled but what most new plotholders need is not half a lorry load of timber dumped on the plot but a good spade and a bottle of embrocation.