Fix Soil

Firblog

Got some terracing put in late last year; went out this last couple of evenings and started to dig up the soil there. It's really compacted clay, with a lot of stones :mad:.
I think I need to do something to the soil before planting anything (flowers / shrubs) in it, was thinking of grabbing some compost from Aldi/Lidl and mixing it in, would this help?

During the dig I didn't see one worm.. aren't they required for good growth?

I'd appreciate any suggestions

magicbastarder

how big an area?

_Brian

Sounds like digging in compost is what would help but you might need a bigger quantity than a few bags from Aldi.

Harry Palmr

Worms reflect the level of organic matter and air in the soil.

How deep is the terracing?

It sounds like the whole lot should be dug up, turned over and mixed with calcium sulfate then levelled at about half the total depth with top soil/rough compost mix put on top.

Firblog

Have 4 terraces, about 18' X 3', one at the back of the other, each 18" high steps.

There's really no way of getting any machinery in here, so solution / best option will have to take account that's it's one outta shape person who's going to have to do all the work..:D

Harry Palmr

18" is quite deep so I'd go for 12" of rehabilitated clayey soil and 6" of top soil/compost.

Regarding top soil you would need pretty much exactly a tonne bag of it per terrace. Plus the compost actually scratch that, a good top soil mix will have the compost in it already.

Shemale

I had the exact same problem in my old house, the grass was not growing in patches and when I dug down it was all loamy soil and didn't look like there was any top soil put down.

I hired a rotavator (it was a terraced house and myself and the missus carried it through the house), I ran the rotavator a number of times over the ground in differing directions and at each pass I picked all the stones / lumps of plastic.

I then got enough top soil mix which included compost to raise the level of the garden by 6 inches, you can get a calculator online to figure out how many bags you need. I got enrich topsoil a few times and it is very good quality, they have a number of stockists/ suppliers you can order it from.

Marhay70

I agree, to a large extent, with Shemale regarding rotovating and removing stones etc but I would also add as much farmyard manure as I could lay my hands on, this is one sure way of adding worms and beneficial bacteria to the soil. I wouldn't be in a hurry to do this and would accept that it might be next year before you can work the soil.
My plan would be to cover the areas now with thick black plastic, the type they use for wrapping hay bales. This will kill off any weed growth and discourage weed germination. In Autumn, I would rotovate and rake the ground, levelling it and clearing stones and finally adding manure to a depth of 4 to 6 inches. Over the Autumn and Spring, worm activity will break up, aerate and enrich the soil and it should be ready for working with a fork by this time next year.
You may consider this to be too long a time to wait but the fact that the garden is terraced means that merely adding topsoil could prove to be a short term solution and you may find that, over time, rain will erode the top soil and you're back to square one.

looksee

Don't go mad taking out stones - a lot of big ones, fine, but reasonable amounts of small stones are good.

endacl

Firblog wrote: »

it's one outta shape person who's going to have to do all the work..:D

Look on the bright side. When the works done, you'll be one in-shape person.

_Brian

I'd vote for covering the beds in thick layer of farmyard manure 4-6inches then cover in plastic well weighted down.
Leave it for the rest of the year and next spring the manure will have rotted down well and the worms will have done much of the heavy work.

Otherwise lots of manual deep digging in the manure is the answer.