Why Raised Beds Suit a Mews Garden

A mews courtyard is often a small, enclosed space — paving, a wall or two, and a garage door that blocks the morning sun. That is exactly why raised beds earn their keep. You are not fighting the ground beneath: you build your own soil, on top of concrete if need be, and you control drainage, fertility and warmth. A raised bed also warms up faster in spring than open ground, which matters when you want a cut of lettuce in April rather than June. Because you can sit on the edge or work from a stool, it suits anyone whose knees have had enough of kneeling on gravel. In a compact plot, a bed is also a piece of furniture: a frame of timber or weathered brick sits happily beside cottage planting.

Choosing a Site and a Size

Most salads and herbs want sun for at least six hours a day; radishes and chard will manage with four or five. In a north-facing mews, put the bed against the sunniest wall and choose leafy crops rather than tomatoes. The golden rule is reach: keep beds no wider than 1.2 metres so you can plant and weed from both sides without treading on the soil. Two beds of 1 metre by 2 metres will feed a small household generously, and a single 1 x 1 metre bed is a fine start. Allow 25 to 30 centimetres of depth for lettuce, herbs, radishes and spring onions, and 40 centimetres or more if you want carrots. Sit beds on a layer of gravel or membrane if you are building over paving, and leave 60-centimetre paths — enough for a trug, a watering can and a folding stool.

Filling the Beds: Compost and Topsoil

The simplest reliable fill is roughly half and half by volume: peat-free multipurpose compost and screened topsoil. The topsoil brings body, holds moisture and stops the compost shrinking away from the sides of the bed; the compost brings the fertility and open texture that seedlings love.

If your beds are deeper than 30 centimetres, save money by putting broken crocks, coarse grit, or half-rotted garden compost and leaf mould in the bottom third, then top off with the mix. Fork in a handful of blood, fish and bone, or a general-purpose organic fertiliser, per square metre. Fill to within three to five centimetres of the rim so there is room to water without it running off. Water thoroughly and let the bed settle for a week before sowing.

The Easiest Crops to Start With

Start with crops that give you something to pick quickly, because a fast first harvest is what keeps a kitchen garden going. Sow a short row of each, and keep sowing little and often rather than making one grand sowing.

• Loose-leaf lettuce. 'Salad Bowl', 'Lollo Rossa' and cut-and-come-again mixes are ideal. Sow thinly in drills one centimetre deep, thin to 15 centimetres apart, and harvest the outer leaves with scissors, leaving the crown to regrow. You will get four or five cuts from a single sowing.
• Radishes. 'French Breakfast' or 'Cherry Belle' are ready in three to four weeks. Sow one centimetre deep, 2 to 3 centimetres apart, and keep the soil moist — dry roots go woody and hot weather sends them to seed.
• Herbs. Basil, parsley, coriander, chives and thyme all thrive in a bed. Keep mint in a pot sunk into the soil or it will march across the whole bed within a season.
• Spring onions and rocket. Sow in short rows, thinning spring onions to 5 centimetres and rocket to 15. Both are ready in six to eight weeks and will resow themselves if you let a few go to seed.

Keeping the Harvest Coming

The trick is succession rather than one grand sowing. Sow a short row of lettuce or radishes every two to three weeks from March to August and you will have a steady supply instead of a glut followed by an empty bed. Fill gaps as they appear — a pinch of rocket or a few spring onions will slot in almost anywhere.

Feed leafy crops with a weak liquid feed every fortnight once they are growing strongly; a tomato feed is fine. Water in the morning, at the base, and aim for thorough soakings rather than a daily sprinkle, which only encourages weak roots. In high summer, shade lettuce with fleece or netting and mulch the soil with compost to hold moisture. Watch for slugs after rain, and net against pigeons if your mews has a resident population.

Getting More from a Small Space

In a mews you are gardening in three dimensions, so use them. Interplant quick crops between slower ones: radishes between lettuce, herbs along the front edge of the bed. Put a tumbling tomato or a few climbing peas at the back, or train a thornless blackberry along a warm wall. A wall-mounted trough of herbs by the door saves a trip to the bed and gives you something to snip while the kettle boils.

For a cottage-garden feel, scatter nasturtiums, calendula and borage at the edges. They are edible, they draw in pollinators, and they soften the hard lines of a timber frame. Winter need not leave the beds bare either: sow a winter salad, plant garlic, or put in overwintering broad beans, and cover with a cloche to keep the worst of the weather off.