soil issues (long story)

 
afternoon all, recently purchased our first house and have really only
been concentrating on the house but the time has finally come when i'm
allowed (my girlfriend is the boss!!) to get stuck into the garden.

the garden itself is not that big, but its quite steep (probably a
gradual difference of 4ft from the top of the garden to the bottom). i
have removed over 15 tonne of concrete that the previous owners had laid
down. this has caused the ground to be quite "undulating"

im currently in the process of wheelbarrowing 19 tonne of soil that was
kindly given to me by a neighbor (who was digging a swimming pool) so im
trying to get the garden to sort of level. i understand that it will
never be flat but i don't mind.

the soil that i was given seems to be sub soil. so far i haven't found
one worm (that's a bad sign im guessing!!) whilst digging in it. i have
been in touch with local horse riding stables who said that i can have
as much manure as i want (which was nice of them) so im going to put
loads of rotten manure in hoping that it will improve the quality of the
soil

i have to build a retaining wall/ fence at the bottom of the garden to
stop all the soil i brought in ending in the garden behind us too, looks
like im going to be a busy boy this summer

is there anything else i can do to improve the soil quality?

how it started

[image: http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c81/mudcow007/thestart.jpg ]

getting there

[image:
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c81/mudcow007/gettingthere.jpg ]




--
mudcow007

 Wow removing all the concrete must have been the hard part! :) Do you
have a plan for what you want to make out of the garden? Esp.
regarding soil it makes a difference what kind of plants you want to
grow...

Try and see if you can locate good source material, I just studied a
book that had something on the subject for 20 minutes last night so
that's where my knowledge on the subject comes from ;) First you'd
probably want some kind of an analysis on the soil. You can ask a
professional or just take a good look at it and consult books/the
newsgroup. Eg. does it have lots of clay or maybe sand, makes a huge
difference. What kind of a place/where do you live, is it a former
river plateau/sea bed etc - so what kind of soil would be expected in
the area?

You can buy better soil or soil materials and put them on top, or mix
them with the top layer of your existing soil. The thickness of the
required patently good soil depends on the plants you grow. As you add
manure over the years the soil will improve, as more organic matter is
introduced (until you hit the ideal degree I suppose). At first you
could pick plants that don't have serious requirements.

 On Thu, 5 May 2011 10:42:44 +0000, mudcow007


I'd consider the gift of pool excavation soil as fill, then rather
than attempt to improve it, I'd still have some good top soil
delivered to place about 10" atop the pool fill.  I'd not add the free
manure until it composts... then use it as top dressing

I'd have laid down those jack hammered concrete slabs to build a
retaining wall to keep your soil from washing onto your neighbor's
property... would save you a ton of money having to buy retaining wall
material and having to haul away perfectly good masonary wall building
material.  Lay the slabs like bricks while filling the spaces with
soil... there are many plants that will easily grow between the slabs,
won't be too long no one will notice that it's just broken up
concrete.

 On Thu, 05 May 2011 10:42:44 +0000, mudcow007 wrote:


Did you save the broken concrete for your retaining wall, or paths?

Broken concrete paths are a great way to save money, and labor.

 On Thu, 5 May 2011 10:42:44 +0000, mudcow007


You don't want flat, you want natural drainage.  When laying this soil
keep in mind where the water is going to run during heavy rain, don't
build any ponds or trences that don't run anywhere.


Excellent!  What you will get will be horse bedding, that is straw
which has manure and urine mixed into it which is all good.  If it is
fresh spread it out and water it.  Wait a couple of weeks and kill all
the seedlings that come up, these will be from seeds in the horse feed
and will depend on the horse's diet.  Then turn it in.  You can also
compost it which will kill the seeds but this will involve more
handling.  You can (and should) apply a lot of horse bedding it will
not give fertiliser burn.

Stables will put used bedding in heaps, sometimes they sit there for
months waiting to be removed.  Even if it is not the most accessible
take the oldest (most rotted) heap.  If you can get it so that the
'nuggets' have all broken down to fibres you will have an excellent
soil amendment.


Use the concrete?


Hard to say without knowing what it is like.  At least check the pH if
you don't get a full soil test done.  

In the evenings while recovering from your aerobic workout you should
be reading garden design books from the library.

David