Well a very productive day on the plot.
Spent most of last night thinking what to do. Answer = move the bed a couple of foot down the plot and raise it, so this morning made a 3mtx3mt x1ft raised bed. Placed this so that the 1ft rise starts at the sand layer meaning i would only have to dig 6" or so of the sand.
Completely removed 1/4 section of the topsoil to reveal the sand and forked this over to a depth of approx 9" a trip to the stables came back with 8 bags of well rotted manure put 6 on top of the 1/4 section approx 8" deep. now all thats left is to dig the next 1/4 but put the topsoil onto the 1st 1/4 dug (with more trips to the stables) this should the give me approx 20" of good stuff.
Neil
Wow I feel foolish now. I've recently gone 30 inches deep and still have 18 long x 2 feet wide to do. Its the border fence area in the garden tween me and the old lady next door, who is also a gardener. It is though absolutely solid, pure, compacted clay apart from about a spade's depth of gritty and littered topsoil. I've done 18 foot x 2 foot (the distance between our 2 respective paths) x 30 inches so far and put in 2 steel posts, 9 foot apart and the rails and palings for the infill. I'm halfway there now on a 36 foot run. It's hectic and back-breaking, and the problem is also getting rid of it. It all has to be run to the tip in bags (permit achieved first) and lifted all over again into a skip. Pure tonnage.
I smashed loads of old bricks up with an 8lb sledgehammer and laid them on the bottom first, 3 or 4 inches deep, then levelled it off with several bags of loose stone, leaving me then about 24 inches to infill. It took about 3 tons of quality top-soil, plus a good raft of manure to fill up to the brim. In the first 9 foot run, I put 6 raspberry canes in, and in the 2nd 9 foot a blackberry bush. Plan is to put another blackberry in the next 9 foot and 6 more raspberries in the remainder.
The old lady offered me 100 quid towards the cost last autumn when I first mentioned it, but I resloutely refused on the basis that I could get on with it piecemeal, and there may be periods when there was no fence between us - like now, and since Christmas. Ok she said - and then knocked on the door mid-december with loads of fruit canes and stuff she had ordered from J Parkers nurseries. 25 raspberries, 3 blackberries, 3 gooseberries, 5 blackcurrants, 25 trailing strawberries and 3 rhubarb. "Here's some fruit for the fence" she said, "you've paid for all the materials and are doing the work so it's only fair. Can you just put any surplus and the bush fruits up on the allotment and the rhubarb in my garden?" "Erm, yes.....!" I've got the bushes in the ground and all the strawberries in pots. 19 raspberries, 2 blackberries and 3 rhubarbs are left.
Now the pressure is on to get everything dug out and improved before the dormant condition ends. It's killing me.