[WeavingGryphon]

Hello or indeed help. Please advise.

We have a threefold problem,
1 the soil is basically subsoil dust, there's no worms and very little organic matter. We've added manure in the past, no difference so we need to add a lot of manure and go 2/3 spades deep digging manure in.
2 the bottom plot is contaminated (dead bed). Vehicles were parked on our plot so it's leakage from them. So we have to remove some soil, maybe the top spadeful? No idea how far to go down then add more soil and manure.
 3 Lack of soil to replace what we take out of the bottom bed. Raspberries can't grow in pure manure (ta John, been reading your books) but rhubarb is very hungry (ta again John) and can according to family legend.

On the bottom dead/dread bed when crops (potatoes or peas) are growing you can see a line where the plants didn't do as well as the next row over. It's a very noticeable difference, one row over and the plants fail to thrive, they're are a fraction of the size and only live a few months before dying and rotting months sooner, June if we're lucky. We're not sure how much soil to take out...  so suggestions are very welcome. We don't want to buy in soil.

Can we take out a spade or two's depth from the contaminated dead bed and replace it with "soil" or sandy dust stuff from the rhubarb bed. Mix in some home made compost we have as well as manure and then safely plant raspberries? We're worried the roots won't be burned. Then grow rhubarb in mostly well rotten horse manure? We have bareroot raspberry canes needing to go in asap.

The local stables have said help ourselves to their manure heaps, we're going for the well rotted stuff and hoping weed killer is limited. But we haven't seen it so it could be manure/manure and bedding of some form. It's free, some of it is rotted, there's loads of it. We need loads and it's what we can get. We are bearing in mind the aminopyralid, we don't think this place is that old and it's been over a decade since it was on the market. Finger's crossed I'm not being stupid.

Some of my family grew rhubarb in fresh horse manure in the past and got monster rhubarb so I hope that rotted will be fine. Has anyone else heard of this or think rotted will be fine?

We'll be adding remin as we're experience of it giving our plants a boost and maybe Growmore granules as well.

[snowdrops]

Dig out as much soil as you can, possible 1ft or 2 if possible, if there’s enough we’ll rotted manure fill the space left with it if not put some less rotted in the bottom of the trench & fill up with the rotted manure. If possible cover over & leave for as long as possible before planting anything even a year or more.

[juvenal]

Hello or indeed help. Please advise.

We have a threefold problem,
[
2 the bottom plot is contaminated (dead bed). Vehicles were parked on our plot so it's leakage from them. So we have to remove some soil, maybe the top spadeful? No idea how far to go down then add more soil and manure.
 

When I took over my home in 1993 a 40ft x 10ft brick and corrugated shed from the 1930's occupied half my garden. Used (for 60 plus prior years) for car/boat maintenance and repairs business. Vehicle drippings, oil, paint and God knows what else had been dripping on that packed-earth and broken cement floor for decades.

The massive shed was duly dismantled and  disposed of; the floor dug deeply over and opened up to the weather - and any organics to hand were dug in. Nothing other than this was done. The old shed area has now been home to healthy flowering shrubs, bulbs and flowers for a long, long time. Hydrangeas, honeysuckle and daffodils do particularly well.

Don't give up on that plot. A bit of loving care and plenty of muck and it will come good. Plants are often much more adaptable/durable than we think.  Good luck.

[WeavingGryphon]

Dig out as much soil as you can, possible 1ft or 2 if possible, if there’s enough we’ll rotted manure fill the space left with it if not put some less rotted in the bottom of the trench & fill up with the rotted manure. If possible cover over & leave for as long as possible before planting anything even a year or more.

I'd love to but we can't, the raspberry canes are heeled in awaiting planting.

We hope since we're dreaming of double digging taking the entire plot that the soil level will rise everywhere. So we can shift "soil" across to that bed to make up the depth. We had compost lined up about August but the company got rid of the machine that makes the grade we want so manure is a fall back.

Which means we're probably getting mad growth for the foreseeable future rather than fruit.

[WeavingGryphon]

When I took over my home in 1993 a 40ft x 10ft brick and corrugated shed from the 1930's occupied half my garden. Used (for 60 plus prior years) for car/boat maintenance and repairs business. Vehicle drippings, oil, paint and God knows what else had been dripping on that packed-earth and broken cement floor for decades.

The massive shed was duly dismantled and  disposed of; the floor dug deeply over and opened up to the weather - and any organics to hand were dug in. Nothing other than this was done. The old shed area has now been home to healthy flowering shrubs, bulbs and flowers for a long, long time. Hydrangeas, honeysuckle and daffodils do particularly well.

Don't give up on that plot. A bit of loving care and plenty of muck and it will come good. Plants are often much more adaptable/durable than we think.  Good luck.

Thank you for telling me that, it's a big help.
I just hope that the plants don't absorb anything that would make the fruit toxic. Husband has eaten some of the tiny potatoes that came out of it and felt fine. But that's different to jam, which will concentrate any toxins.

[WeavingGryphon]

Got some manure, the horse element is away to nothing and the wood shavings are all brown and squishy so I hope it's rotted enough. There was grass growing in it and it was full of worms.

[DHM]

Not sure if its any help as my contamination problem was slightly different - scores of buried batteries and paint cans. In the end I wasnt confident that even 2-3 foot would be sufficient to remove the leeched chemicals so in the end paved it and use it for storing wood and hardcore. Could you use that areafor something else? A shed maybe?

As for improving soil, in addition to whats been said already, you could also dig in some leaf mould from the woods, its fab stuff.

[WeavingGryphon]

Not sure if its any help as my contamination problem was slightly different - scores of buried batteries and paint cans. In the end I wasnt confident that even 2-3 foot would be sufficient to remove the leeched chemicals so in the end paved it and use it for storing wood and hardcore. Could you use that areafor something else? A shed maybe?

As for improving soil, in addition to whats been said already, you could also dig in some leaf mould from the woods, its fab stuff.

Urgh, that sounds nasty.

No, the shed is already placed and it's a quarter of that plot's growing space. Husband hasn't lifted the top spadeful of the plot and he's taken 7 barrow loads out and think he's at least 10 left to go. That's too much land. I should really post a picture of the manure we can get. They've done work where the older stuff was so it's mixed in with stones and bits of tree.

I need to put a picture of the stuff. The manure is totally broken down but the wood chips are brown and don't break apart so I'm worried it's not old enough.