[rogertb]

Hi chaps ... long time no post as we moved house (to Bexhill) and I've been on a list for a year but now have a new allotment. All seems good but I understand from my plot 'neighbours' that the site was once a military barracks and they brought up loads of pebbles from the local beach for an exercise area for the horses. So whilst the soil is a bit claggy (difficult to tell as it's so wet at the moment) it is also full of stones. I guess root crops wont be too happy and when it dries out a bit I can rake some stones up but does anyone have any experience of stony ground and can offer some advice please

[Offwego]

how about no dig raised beds?

[rogertb]

Thanks Offwego but would that not involve a substantial amount of timber supports and a few tons of topsoil ? ... there are budgetary restraints sadly ?

[Offwego]

no need for timber supports and the beds would be fairly easy and economic to form , take a look at charles dowdings sites on you tube

ive just done 6 beds and apart from  paying £10 for a delivery of horse manure thats all was needed to spend. yes i have done it using timber edges but there is no absolute need for them

[snow white]

It's only root crops that won't like it.   As crops are rotated you only need to clear the area where the root crops will go.  It will take a few years but the site will eventually be reasonable clear of stones.  The stones can make good paths as long as they are lined with plastic membrane.  I have a lovely flint stone path on my allotment from my pickings.

[rogertb]

Thanks again offwego, I'll check out Mr Dowdings site and snow white, yes maybe I'm being too concerned and I am planning on dividing the plot so paths so 'stoney' paths sound good !

[Eblana]

My plots were very Stoney and also was prone to water logging.  We dug 3 foot trench along the front of the plot.  We used the soil from this trench in a raised bed (we picked out the large stones and sieved the soil). We backfilled the trench with all the stones from the plot as we dug using it as a soak away which has really helped with the water logging. The raised bed with the sieved soil is used for roots. 

[sunshineband]

Our plots were both very very stony when we took them over. We use a four year rotation and take as many stones out of the beds that will house carrots and parsnips, when we prepare beds in the Autumn for the following Spring. This means each bed gets dealt with in turn. Initially we had to grow carrots in containers, including large polystyrene boxes someone gave us, but now they do well in the ground itself.

Everything else has been fine as we have gone along

[gstrong]

Definitely agree the best is to dig and clear the stones by hand, in the long run it,s better than relying on raised beds if you don't have to.
It's not a quick solution, but take it a bit at a time and gradually you'll get there :-)

[rogertb]

The soak away sounds good Eblana ... also I think I might make a couple of raised beds for brassicas so I can net them easily and some of the stones will make paths between, the rest of the area I'll dig and rake the stones ... probably not a bad job when the soil's dried out a bit. Not too fussed about carrots - they're so cheap anyway ... maybe a small row under netting so I can eat them when they're very small.

[sunshineband]

The soak away sounds good Eblana ... also I think I might make a couple of raised beds for brassicas so I can net them easily and some of the stones will make paths between, the rest of the area I'll dig and rake the stones ... probably not a bad job when the soil's dried out a bit. Not too fussed about carrots - they're so cheap anyway ... maybe a small row under netting so I can eat them when they're very small.

We use our stones as soakaways around the edges of our plots, and masses went to be hardcore when we made a patio area. Just be aware that if you use them as paths, weeds will still grow up between them

[hasbeans]

My garden seems to be mostly sandstone, brick or broken concrete below about 4 inches and I've spent the last year moving topsoil and subsoil  (8 cubic metres and counting) around to make beds, a pond and a blooming, muddy mess.  When I started I riddled the lot, which made sense for the asparagus bed but as I've got bored of moving soil and read Dowding and thought about the earth as more than the sum of it's parts I have become less bothered by stones.  Now I take out owt on the surface when I weed but otherwise leave it as drainage and mineral source.
I also think my raspberries stand unsupported because they grow through 6 inch of sandstone rubble which seems to stop the canes from  keeling.

[rogertb]

That's encouraging hasbeans thank you ... I do enjoy a 'riddle' now and then, quite therapeutic on a nice day !