Raised vegetable patch advice

 We have a patch at the end of our garden about 7.5x 4.5 feet. Because of pr=
evious building here, the earth is very sandy and unproductive and is Londo=
n clay anyway.

It is very hard to get any vegetables to grow on it except tomatoes.

I have put a pic of it at

http://www.dthorpe.net/viewing

My wife suggests raising it and filling with decent topsoil. How high would=
 be suitable and what depth of top soil would it need to be for both ease o=
f working and decent growing. What kind of earth? Is raising it a good idea=
 at all? I simply have no experience of this at all.

All advice gratefully received!

 
We have a patch at the end of our garden about 7.5x 4.5 feet. Because of
previous building here, the earth is very sandy and unproductive and is
London clay anyway.

It is very hard to get any vegetables to grow on it except tomatoes.

I have put a pic of it at

http://www.dthorpe.net/viewing

My wife suggests raising it and filling with decent topsoil. How high would
be suitable and what depth of top soil would it need to be for both ease of
working and decent growing. What kind of earth? Is raising it a good idea at
all? I simply have no experience of this at all.

All advice gratefully received!

Freecycle, or at least my local one, is always coming up with topsoil.
Raising it may or may not be good idea because of drainage, it will always
need more watering than the non-raised part of the garden. Adding a goodly
quantity of manure should help. Chelsea Barracks may let you have some. I
don't know what the manure situation is in Nodnol, I live in Dorset, and
manure is readily available free.

 Steve

 

"lemmy"  wrote ...

We have a patch at the end of our garden about 7.5x 4.5 feet. Because of
previous building here, the earth is very sandy and unproductive and is
London clay anyway.

It is very hard to get any vegetables to grow on it except tomatoes.

I have put a pic of it at

http://www.dthorpe.net/viewing

My wife suggests raising it and filling with decent topsoil. How high would
be suitable and what depth of top soil would it need to be for both ease of
working and decent growing. What kind of earth? Is raising it a good idea at
all? I simply have no experience of this at all.

All advice gratefully received!

....................................................

A clay and sand mixture sounds like perfect growing soil. Probably just
needs a good dose of manure/compost to bring it back to life.

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
W.of London. UK

 says...

  My thoughts too.

  Janet

 

The sand comes from the building work and is totally mixed in with the
clay.

Thanks for the thoughts - we've dosed the soil up with compost etc and
the problem remains. I have a feeling that the problem is as Harry
says, a lack of sunlight.