[sladefungus]

after much digging this past month its become apparant that one end of the main large bed is very poor.  it was full of stones and litter aswell as the ubiquitous mare's tail networks then only 10 inches down it turns into a really tough orange clay.  If i dont get time to really sift it through for stones etc after doing the rest of the digging i plan to use it as a 'bin' for any spare seedlings or seedlings ive thinned out etc and just see how well they do as an experiment.  Is this a good idea or should i just put plants in there that dont mind a poor soil.  potatoes to break the soil up?  beans to leave their nitrogen nodules?

[WG.]

Have you got access to muck or compost SF?  In large amounts??

[Aidy]

SF, you can put in Swiss Chard, this stuff grows in any soil, if you take mine last year, we have very sandy soil and last years sunny spell dried it down to about 6 inches, it was dust, but the chard kept on growing and kept giving us plenty of leaves to eat, because it also grows quite high it will compete with the horstail.

[sladefungus]

no i dont have access to compost or muck.  ive been hoping to bump into other allotmenteers at the site to get leads on where to get muck but theres never anyone there when i am.

[WG.]

no i dont have access to compost or muck

Okay, I agree with the beans but don't reckon that tatties are a good idea.  First year I've grown chard so can't comment on Aidy's recommendation.  I've grown perpetual spinach which is prone to run to seed when moisture-stressed.

If you miss out the tatties then it would be a good chance to sling on lots of lime (the mares tail indicating acid conditions?).

How about herbs?  Most of the Mediterranean ones actually like stony soils.  Rosemary, thyme, sage.

Either that or try the "big veg" approach that I've described elsewhere ... dig out and improve a pocket of soil to take a big winter cabbage or summat like that.

[WG.]

Or a comfrey patch?   Comfrey needs good feeding but this can be added later in the form of surface mulch.

[sladefungus]

cheers for the tips
yeah i think comfrey is a good idea.  is it poking through yet?  theres some stuff around the edges of the allotment land that looks like it could be comfrey but not totally sure till it grows a bit more.  could nick some of that.
we had an official env dept assay of the site and i read it and my plot has a ph of about 6.5 so maybe not urgently in need of liming but that is also an idea.

[WG.]

Yes, comfrey should be well through by now.  Mine is and I am 150 miles north of you, and almost 600ft higher.