The EasyBed Continues to Provide

The EasyBed raised bed continues to provide the office with great lunches. I know we haven't put anything on here for a few days so we thought it time for a quick update.

It has been two weeks since we harvested our first crop and still the meals keep being provided. Four people have raided the bed every working day during that time to make salads, soups and sandwiches and we're only about half way through the rocket and not much further through the lettuce leaves.

When the idea was first put forward to do a blog on the EasyBed raised bed kit, I don't think any of us realised quite how well we would all do out of it.

Just look at this happy face below and tell me you don't want to enjoy the benefits of an EasyBed !!

Back on the Salad !!

We went back to a nice simple salad today, plenty of rocket, lettuce mixed in with tomatoes, new potatoes and ham. Just perfect.

As you can see from this shot, we are barely 1/3 of the way through what we managed to grow here at EverEdge HQ. So far, the EasyBed raised bed has provided the main ingredients for 14 meals and there is still so much more to come. 

We're really going to have to explore some recipe books to think of ways to keep our meals interesting. That said, our salads have been so tasty that i think we could live off them alone for a few more days.

The raised bed really is a great way to grow your own. Anyone from a single person up to a large family could taste the benefits of an EasyBed. We've shown how easy it is to grow good, large crops in a small area. 

In the spring, we will have to try and grow something more exotic but for now, we feast on lettuce leaves!!

Rocket Fuel !!

The EasyBed Raised Bed continues to provide the main ingredients for our lunches...

Today we treated ourselves to rocket soup. Seriously easy to make and a real tasty treat. This is a great one for later in the year when the temperature begins to drop.

Recipe (serves 4) :

100g of Butter

100g of Flour

100g of Rocket

100g of Chorizo

1 litre of Chicken Stock

Melt the butter in a large pan and then add the flour. Mix to make a thick paste (a roux). Slowly add the chicken stock and whisk. Add the rocket and allow to simmer for 4 minutes.

Whilst the mixture simmers, chop the chorizo into small cubes and fry until crispy.

Pour the soup mixture into a blender and blend to a smooth consistency. Add the chunks of chorizo and enjoy your rocket fuel. A sumptuous, warming meal enjoyed by us with a little crusty bread.

The Raised Bed Giveth !!

Finally, the time has come and the harvest is on. A first crop has been cut and a delicious salad prepared and it really was delicious.

The EasyBed has produced a stunning crop. When we began this process we had no idea how quickly and how well the lettuces and rocket would spring up. 

Considering how late in the year we planted our seeds, we had plenty of warnings that we may get very little joy from our efforts. In fact, the extra warmth generated by raised bed growing not only allowed us a healthy crop, but it has also grown at an extraordinary rate.

According to the packets, there was a chance that we would only have begun to see the first green shoots a week ago and here we are with rocket bigger than you would ever see from the supermarket.

And the taste was wonderful. You really cannot beat freshly picked fruit and vegetable and, with an EverEdge EasyBed, anyone can grow fruit and veggies on the smallest of plots of land.

At the office, we will be looking forward to a great supply of lettuce and salads over the next couple of weeks. 

When you consider the cost of food at the moment, the ability to grow your own suddenly becomes more and more appealing. When you tie in the flavour and the knowledge of where your food is coming from, it almost becomes a no-brainer.

Recipe :

Today we had tomatoes, eggs and new potatoes from the next door estate mixed in with a mass of our office grown rocket and mixed leaf lettuce and coated in an olive oil and balsamic dressing. Perfect.

Nearly ...

We're just a few hours away from harvesting our first crop from the EasyBed raised bed. Some of us just can't seem to wait!!

Big IS Beautiful

Wow - our salad is really coming along. In no time at all, or so it feels, the rocket and the lettuce have shot up and look good enough to eat right now. Expert advice though, from the MD, tells us we're still a few days away from being to gather our first harvest. 

Still, it won't be long now, the EasyBed raised bed is doing us proud !!

To Russia with Love (Привет Россия !!)

We are getting a large number of visitors to this blog from Russia. We do not have an agent in Russia at the moment but goods can be bought direct from our agent in Finland.

www.siistipiha.fi

Thunder & Lightning Very, Very Frightening

A grand thunderstorm just swept through our little part of England dumping hailstones and driving rain outside our office.

Despite this freak weather, the EasyBed raised bed frame survived easily. If this was an attempt by the God of rabbits to blow down our netting it failed. 

Sorry bunnies, that lettuce is for us !

Growth Spurt !!

Not much to report - we're not doing anything but watering today.

However, we wanted to get a picture up to show the growth. According to the packets of seeds, we should only just be seeing the first green shoots around now but our lettuces are already over an inch and a half half high and looking great.

If only we could find someway to plant the British economy in an EasyBed raised bed we'd grow out of the this recession in no time !

So Pretty - it should be framed !!

Every great work of art deserves to be framed, if only to keep the rabbits out !

EverEdge can supply a frame kit to go with the EasyBed raised bed to keep out the birds and rabbits. Essentially, the kit is made up from some flexible plastic rods and some rubber balls. The rods are connected, using the balls, to create an arch over the bed which can then support a net.

One vital tool, not supplied by EverEdge, is a bottle of washing up liquid. The holes in the balls are intentionally very tight to prevent the frame coming apart. The washing up liquid lubricates the rods making connecting them considerably easier.

Step 1 : The frame will slot into the corner pieces of the EasyBed. To make this possible, first hammer down the corner pins approximately one inch.

Step 2 : Simply connect the rods and bend over the raised bed. The rods should sit comfortably in the corner pieces of the bed.

Step 3 : Join the arches together with a horizontal rod along the top.

Step 4 : Once you have a solid arched frame, the netting can be slung over the top and pegged down to the ground.

Step 5 : Watch the pesky birds and rabbits look mournfully through the netting as your delicious veggies grow unmolested by the outside world.

The Good Life (Race for a Salad)

It may not be straight from the gardeners handbook, but today we fashioned a mini greenhouse for our raised bed using an old shower door.

The glass door is simply propped up with a few wooden stakes and, hopefully, will allow our lettuces to grow even quicker than they have been.

We won't need our greenhouse to be up the whole time, in general it has been much warmer recently. However, this is just another bow in our quiver and gives us a little extra control over the  temperature.

What our Heath Robinsonesq addition to the bed means is that, as the temperature drops in the coming weeks and into the winter, we will be able to add our glass top and grow for much longer - at least that's the theory!

The Shower door itself came from our MD. He's moving house and hates to throw anything out, so we thought we could at least recyle this for him!

UPDATE - The green shoots are still shooting upwards, it won't be much longer before we'll need to get our hands dirty and space them out a little (and not long after that we should be able to harvest a few baby leaves!!).

Green Shoots !!

Our first green shoots are appearing all over the raised bed !!

We are a few days ahead of where the packets said we should be which is a testament to the benefits of a raised bed.

The EasyBed, by encasing the growing area, keeps the soil much warmer than it would otherwise be. This allows for veggies and plants to grow sooner in the year and keeps the growing season going longer.

At this rate, our EverEdge salad will be with us in no time at all !

EasyBed Overseas

We've noticed a lot of visitors are finding our blog from overseas, and from the USA in particular.

The EasyBed raised bed is sold in the US through the below mentioned suppliers who both hold good stocks.

Kinsman Company http://www.kinsmangarden.com/

Backyard Farmers http://www.backyardfarmers.com/store/p/95-Rooftop-Garden-Bed-System-.html.

EverEdge EasyBed is a UK product. All EverEdge products have been invented, designed and made in Britain. However, the product range is expoted to all corners of the globe. Please contact us for information about where this can be bought overseas.

You can email us on info@everedge.co.uk

Raised Bed Planted !!

  

And in go the lettuce seeds !!

Our raised bed is planted and watered and now we wait. According to the packets, we should expect to see growth anytime in the next 7-14 days. We're hoping for sooner rather than later.

Either way, as soon as we see greenery, we'll let you know. 

I'm the one with the beard by the way. The pretty one with the watering can, that's Emma!

Raised Bed Filled !!

The raised bed is full !!

We used a mixture of chicken poo, compost and topsoil to fill the EasyBed raised bed and to give our lettuces the best possible chance to come up big and strong.

As soon as my fingers stop typing here, we'll get planting.

The EasyBed Raised Bed takes just minutes to assemble. The bed comes in a flat pack system of individual 1m long pieces. Each piece is simply connected to the next by slotting a galvanised steel bar through the corner join.

The corners are a hinge system, exactly like you would find on a door. This makes the EasyBed modular and allows for a variety of shapes to be formed. Some examples of what you can do can be seen on the EverEdge website by clicking the link at the top of the page or by visiting www.everedge.co.uk.

Here we have constructed a 2m x 1m bed to give us plenty of room for our lettuces.

Building the Raised Bed

Job one is send out the EverEdge Managing Director to prepare the ground. He has to rake away the gravel outside our office to create a suitable place for the EasyBed raised bed.

Next up, we'll build the bed!

The EverEdge EasyBed Project

At EverEdge we've decided to grow some veg for our office lunches. As we're so late in the year now, we're sticking to growing a few lettuces.

We'll try and do at least one update a week to show the progression of our efforts. Day one (today) we'll get the bed built.

This shot shows where we will put our EasyBed and begin growing.