[st0ne5ish]

I planted out my onion and garlic sets today on the new plot and I noticed when I was raking that there are a lot of stones. Most were flint and old brick. I ended up with a pile of stones in the path but there must be loads a bit deeper I missed.

Are there any particular crops that don't do well in stony ground? Is it worth trying to remove as many as possible when digging over the beds?

[Pip Judgeford]

 The good news is that stony or sandy ground heat up well in spring and holds the heat.  The good news is that draining is pretty good. 

I lived for a while on old gold mine tailings - no soil to speak of as it had all been sluiced away in 1880's to yeild the gold. I still grew stuff, by building soil on top with lots of raised beds with wood or stone edges.  Sure I did a lot of scrounging of materials to make that soil, like from the local race course, wood ash, grass clippings from friends and lots of green cover crops. Carrots were a problem until the soil got deep enough but most other vegetables were OK.  Spuds were Ok too as the "earthing up" was done with sawdust, grass clipping etc not soil - still  got some.  Peas and beans were pretty good as they make their own goodies to a certain extent.

Pip

[Wombat18]

Root veg is likely to be your problem.  If you're planning on planting carrots in an area, dig it over first and get the bigger stones out.  You should be able to find uses for them, in the bottom of pots or as useful weights for the edges of nets.  If you have too many to do that, you'll need to consider going the raised bed route.

[potatogrower]

carrots don't like stones and i presume parships too (not grown these) but stones are good in helping retain heat in the soil, slowing releasing it and they help break up soil when its dry. bricks i would get rid of.

[JayG]

Many people on here have reported overcoming stony soil by growing carrots and parsnips (particularly the latter) in deep dibbed-out holes filled with a mixture of compost and sand.

(Not tried it myself as although my soil is fairly stony albeit sandy I usually more or less get away with it.)