CREATING A RIDGE & FURROW PLOT

After several years of good service, my timber raised beds finally rotted through and collapsed. Unperturbed, I decided that this was a good opportunity to adopt a method of veg gardening that I had read about in the Vegetable Gardener’s Bible by Edward C Smith. The system was based on the ancient ‘ridge and furrow’ farming system, whereby raised beds (the ridges) and sunken pathways (the furrows) were constructed by ploughing techniques. Growing crops using ridge and furrow first began shortly after the Romans left our shores and up until the 17th century. In some areas, including rural Northumberland where we live, these systems are still intact and clearly