I like gardening but do not know what I am doing

Terri the ropky

Hi. I recently moved and the back garden consisted of huge concrete block shed and gravel plus a mismatch of concrete steps by the back door and the garden is surrounded on 3 sides by high concrete block walls (the 4th side is the back of the house) - so really is was a yard, not a garden. I had the shed removed and some of the blocks were used to make narrow raised beds along the high walls and the gravel was to be raked off from what was to be a garden onto a driveway from the back gates and the rest was to be taken away. 30 tons of top soil was delivered and spread. The people who spread the top soil said the second lot was even better than the first - although I saw lots of stones, big tufts of grass and big clumps of soil. When I called them back to remove part of a wall that I found when digging, they said the top soil was awful (same people). I have flowers, tomatoes and peas in the raised beds and am keeping it weeded - most are doing well (the flowers, not the weeds!). I went back to digging what was to be a small vegetable garden and discovered solid baked lumps of clay and, half a fork deep, an enormous amount of stones and so much gravel - that explains why the driveway isn't done properly. I have also found some large pieces of concrete (the floor of the shed) and beneath it - heavily-compacted soil and, on it and in it, what seems to be the foundations of the shed and rocks/boulders that are taking me about a hour to remove just one and there are some I cannot move. I don't think the soil is too awful as the weeds are doing great. I have 10 potatoes (courtesy of my brother's sweat and determination), plus 3 spinach plants and some beetroot - all outside the confines of what was the shed (though I seem to hit stones everywhere I put the fork - which I have now bent. So I'm having a rethink - remove the weeds by hand in the veg area then railway sleepers for raised beds, but is the depth of half a fork plus one railway sleeper deep enough and do I get 'cleaned' top soil (I have just learned that this is possible) or use bags of compost? I am digging out the weeds to about 2 feet from the raised beds (I'm halfway there), and am thinking about protecting the veg area and using weedkiller on the rest of the garden and on the driveway bit. I've bought some organic(?) weedkiller (it's not really and the place I bought it said that those who buy it, buy it often (meaning it's not that great) but I won't use the likes of Roundup. The rest of the garden will be grass, fragrant bushes and flowers with some kind of water feature as there are now two electric sockets in the middle of the garden - the shed had electricity - though where the wires run, I have no idea! Frying tonight! PS - the reason I'm called Terri the ropky is because I'[m partially-sighted - it was meant to be 'rooky'.

the_syco

Could you get a mini-digger into your back garden?

mvl

So what do you hope to achieve from this thread ?

Well - if it helps, I am in same boat: recently moved, the garden is in a state that has been worked on before we got it, and it needs little maintenance at the moment. but we don't like the structure and plan to change it in future.
- I am aware of how little I know about gardening (the interest/skill seems to be improving with age in my family), I think we'll need to come up with a few years plan about how to approach the project for this garden.

but interest is there, and that is important imo.

macraignil

Terri the ropky wrote: »

Hi. I recently moved and the back garden consisted of huge concrete block shed and gravel plus a mismatch of concrete steps by the back door and the garden is surrounded on 3 sides by high concrete block walls (the 4th side is the back of the house) - so really is was a yard, not a garden. I had the shed removed and some of the blocks were used to make narrow raised beds along the high walls and the gravel was to be raked off from what was to be a garden onto a driveway from the back gates and the rest was to be taken away. 30 tons of top soil was delivered and spread. The people who spread the top soil said the second lot was even better than the first - although I saw lots of stones, big tufts of grass and big clumps of soil. When I called them back to remove part of a wall that I found when digging, they said the top soil was awful (same people). I have flowers, tomatoes and peas in the raised beds and am keeping it weeded - most are doing well (the flowers, not the weeds!). I went back to digging what was to be a small vegetable garden and discovered solid baked lumps of clay and, half a fork deep, an enormous amount of stones and so much gravel - that explains why the driveway isn't done properly. I have also found some large pieces of concrete (the floor of the shed) and beneath it - heavily-compacted soil and, on it and in it, what seems to be the foundations of the shed and rocks/boulders that are taking me about a hour to remove just one and there are some I cannot move. I don't think the soil is too awful as the weeds are doing great. I have 10 potatoes (courtesy of my brother's sweat and determination), plus 3 spinach plants and some beetroot - all outside the confines of what was the shed (though I seem to hit stones everywhere I put the fork - which I have now bent. So I'm having a rethink - remove the weeds by hand in the veg area then railway sleepers for raised beds, but is the depth of half a fork plus one railway sleeper deep enough and do I get 'cleaned' top soil (I have just learned that this is possible) or use bags of compost? I am digging out the weeds to about 2 feet from the raised beds (I'm halfway there), and am thinking about protecting the veg area and using weedkiller on the rest of the garden and on the driveway bit. I've bought some organic(?) weedkiller (it's not really and the place I bought it said that those who buy it, buy it often (meaning it's not that great) but I won't use the likes of Roundup. The rest of the garden will be grass, fragrant bushes and flowers with some kind of water feature as there are now two electric sockets in the middle of the garden - the shed had electricity - though where the wires run, I have no idea! Frying tonight! PS - the reason I'm called Terri the ropky is because I'[m partially-sighted - it was meant to be 'rooky'.

First point I'd like to address from your post is that indoor electric sockets have no place outdoors in a garden. They are set to deliver a voltage of 220volts which is enough to deliver a serious electric shock. Outdoor sockets are specifically designed to keep out water and should have the voltage stepped down to 110volts to allow for the higher risk of electrocution accidentally outdoors. If these sockets are like your indoor sockets and are live wired I would recommend you contact an electrician to modify then for outdoor use or simply decommission them.

As to your question on soil depth for crops, the depth of a railway sleeper plus half a fork would probably be OK for some crops. Might be worth considering having the sides of your railway sleeper raised beds being a few sleepers deep to allow you sit on them while tending the crop in the raised bed but this obviously would cost a bit more and take more soil to fill up. Not much experience with raised beds myself but ones built to allow higher sides seem nicer to look at to me and less stooping would make tending the beds easier.

Getting materials in bags is usually more expensive so if you can get bulk delivery of clean top soil and compost you could save on the project but since bags are more convenient it could be worth doing some calculations to compare your options. Mixing compost and good soil would be more traditional for vegetable growing than just one or the other. Again its not a simple question as some crops like higher levels of compost than others. Carrots for example will fork (ie. grow badly following the nutrients and not forming a proper pointed root) if too much organic material is in the soil before planting.