[agapanthus]

Some of you may know that we acquired about a 1/4 acre of scrubland. It was completely barren soil, very thin and incredibly rocky. With a bit of cash and some help from a few digger drivers here on the building site we managed to get 180 tons of sub-soil and 120 tons of topsoil put on top of it. The jcb driver levelled it for us and Muntjac managed to get the rotovator on it before the rains set in.
Before planting we put down a few ton of bulk compost in the areas we wanted to plant out.
At the moment we have an area with courgettes, squash and sunflowers, another with sprouting broccoli  and some smaller areas with beetroot, carrots, turnips and some leeks.....none of which are doing particularly well because we planted very late and the atrocious weather we've had has'nt helped....but we really wanted to get something in and get the soil working.
The problem is the rest of the ground that has'nt been planted.  A lot of the unplanted area are extremely wet.......really wet and boggy in the first 3 or 4 inches and beneath that it's like really solid! It's like walking on a pavement that's had a huge amount of mud chucked on top of it!! Although it was topsoil we used, it had'nt been graded and there's a huge amount of large rocks in there as well.....well it was free!!! How would you get around this problem....bearing in mind it's a large area I'm talking about and also we do have crops in certain areas.
Any help at all will be gratefully appreciated....thanks

[lincspoacher]

How about mustard and confrey? grow and dig it in?

[agapanthus]

How about mustard and confrey? grow and dig it in?

I was actually thinking of green manure....all I could come up with!

[SnooziSuzi]

I'd go with that too, and as you go along just get rid of the larger stones.

More compost would never go amiss either!  

[agapanthus]

I'd go with that too, and as you go along just get rid of the larger stones.

More compost would never go amiss either!  

You're not that far away snoozi...wanna give me a hand???

[peapod]

Been racking my brains aggy, but theres no easy way is there?  :cry:
gotta pick those stones out as you go  :cry:

Maybe try spuds? Ive heard they are the best for not too great soil, (though my boggy bed only offered up three plants out of 50/60 spuds planted so I guess that dont help hunny, sorry!)

Paula

[agapanthus]

It's not just the rocks....it's the bogginess that's the biggest worry.

[love-my-plot]

Would adding sharp sand, to each area ,as you go ,help to soak up some of the bogginess?

[peapod]

It's not just the rocks....it's the bogginess that's the biggest worry.

I know that feeling, on most of my plot its only come to light recently(shock horror) that all I can do is either lay land drains or raised beds, Im not too keen on the raised beds as yet, but going to price up the drains first, then we'll see
OH can lay the land drains no probs, but will I want raised beds later? Its all a quandary!

Useless to you, Ill shut up now  
Paula

[vegmandan]

That can be a big problem with reinstated land.
Too much soil compaction etc.
We've just had a massive gas pipeline go right through our field and it was all reinstated drained etc but it's a complete boggy mess.
I'd suggest growing a sacrificial green manure crop or something that would send some big roots down and open up the soil structure a bit then chop it down and rotivate it in.
I'm not too sure which would be best but ryecorn (grazing rye) can be sown now and will overwinter.
 

[Yabba]

I'm not too sure which would be best but ryecorn (grazing rye) can be sown now and will overwinter.
 

Excuse my ignorance : I was under the impression that green manure had to be cut down/dug in before it seeds? every type I've looked at online seems to seed to early ( I need it to last until about april )

Am I just looking at the wrong stuff?

¥

[waddecar]

You are going to have to break through the compacted layer in order to get any drainage going and with 1/4 acre I think a mechanised solution is necessary to get results in a reasonable timescale.

The agri solution would be a sub soiler but that would require a heavy tractor and you may not have enough room for that.

How about a small excavator?

 If no room for that either you might be able to break up the compaction using a powered post hole digger

[johnhar]

Agapanthus you do have a real problem with your new plot. The problem has most likely been caused by the lorries tipping the soil and the diggers spreading it for you, happens all the time on the new housing estates.
You have several options to cure the problem. The best way would be to get it ploughed or mole drained as deep as possible , but with any drainage plan you must be able to run te water to a lower place.
You have got to clear the large stone of the area , and you could use these to make a french drain, which is just a trench dug at a diagonal across the plot and filled with stones, the end of the trench i then made into a sump pit again filled with large stone.
Asa green crop for sowing this time of the year i find Rape takes a lot of beating as the seed is quite cheap, and if it grows to tall it can be strimmed down several times before it needs digging in.
I know that 300 tons of soil seems a lot but it only adds about 7inches extra depth to the plot.
Hope that this helps you to get it sorted.

[SnooziSuzi]

I'd go with that too, and as you go along just get rid of the larger stones.

More compost would never go amiss either!  

You're not that far away snoozi...wanna give me a hand???

lemmee think about that one....   um.... NO!!!!      

[agapanthus]

Thanks ever so for all your replies....it's a biggy problem Having all the heavy machinery going over the land certainly did'nt help but without them we would'nt have a garden! Going to start wth all the green manure I can get my hands on. We had thought of a plough but that would have meant getting the crops that we have in at the moment ruined. Hopefully if and when they mature we could sweet-talk a local farmer into giving us a hand......you never know...he may say yes!!!!! Thanks again guys, you've given me a lot of food for thought!