[Benandbill]

I have a new plot with very shallow ground and about 4 varieties of weed.  It's a bit of a pain to get tidy but I'll get there in the end.  I have potatoes in most of it. This is supposed to be good for clearing weeds because you get the weeds out when you're arthing over the potatoes.

In some parts you can only get the fork about 2/3 of the way into the ground.  What other veg would you grow in this sort of garden?  Is there anything that this is more suitable for - obviously not roots. 

Eventually I'll do something about the depth of course whether that's digging out the large boulders undeneath - a huge task - and bulking up with manure and topsoil, also potentially expensive, or else, make raised beds.

I wish it would warm up a bit here as well 

[Mark-S]

Sweetcorn, short carrots, lettuce etc. Basically anyyhing that does not have a long tap root will be more suitable. Parsnips for example would be difficult.
That said you could grow a wider selection in drills or ridges. Ie make a ridge similar to your spuds ridges by earthing up, then plant your veg atop the ridge. It's how market gardeners used to do it.

Next question - why is it shallow? Is it compacted or the bedrock? Could It be improved?

Just my thougthts, I am sure others may have other ideas.

[mattwragg94]

i agree with mark on the lettuce and short carrots and other crops with short root systems - however i have to disagree with him  on the sweetcorn as they can get quite top-heavy and need a good ancor. so all low growing crops with small root systems will be fine

[Benandbill]

Thanks Mark-S, I like the market gardeners' method you describe, that's something I hadn't thought of.  There's a lot of big rounded rocks underneath.  It's not the whole plot though some of it you can dig down over a foot. 

Nice one mattwragg94, I might get a lod of Leaf Beet spinach growing in ther.  I love the stuff and from my crop last year I don't remember the roots having to be that big? 

[mattwragg94]

yeh you will be fine with leaf crops such as spinach etc

[shokkyy]

I've got some beds that are just 6" inch and sitting on broken up old concrete, so no soil below. I've had no problems at all getting good crops of onions, strawberries, tomatoes, courgettes, chard, turnips, lettuce, radish, garlic, small carrots, French beans, mange tout. Really the only things I can't grow in there are deep root crops and brassicas.

[Benandbill]

Thanks shokkyy that's really encouraging.  Brassicas are a pain in the backside anyhow.  Mine just seem to get eaten by everything even when I net them.

[shokkyy]

Oh, and I do have to be a bit more creative about supports for things like tall tomato plants. With just 6" depth, you can't get a cane in very far.

[GrannieAnnie]

Making some raised beds perhaps over the worst of the ground would give you a bit more depth too.

Actually Shokky, when you mentioned the tomatoes in only 6inches depth.  Do you think tomatoes would grow up a wigwam of canes, a bit like runner beans?

Only my daughter has a bit of garden which seems to have not much depth and loads of old hardcore underneath.  She says nothing will grow there.

[shokkyy]

Obviously they wouldn't wind themselves round the canes, but if you tied them in and gave them a lot of steering I bet you could do it.

What I do is make a kind of box of canes within the boundaries of the raised bed. The canes can't support themselves very well with so little depth, so I use horizontal canes to connect them together and make the whole thing into a good strong structure, with strings or smaller canes going across the bed between them so I've got lots of supporting strings and canes running through the bed. I can either use them for tying in or I can just let the tomatoes lean against them. I tend to do bush tomatoes in those beds so I normally just let them lean and they do absolutely fine like that, even the big Italian paste tomatoes.

Just like in your daughter's garden, it was a big area that was completely wasted and it would have been a horrendous job to start digging up all that old concrete. So I just nailed together some lengths of decking, slapped them down on top of the concrete (I did put some weedproof membrane at the bottom) and filled them with imported topsoil. I had very good crops in them that same year and ever since.  If you can grow it in a growbag, you can grow it in 6 inches of soil.

Thought of something else I've grown in there - cucumbers, aubergines and peppers. The peppers especially seemed to love those beds.

[angelavdavis]

Parts of my plot has shallow topsoil over sandstone.  I have built raised beds for my rotation and fruit beds, but have left my cutflower and herb beds on the shallow topsoil and they are all fine.  I have found that simply adding compost and manure has raised it a little anyway.  I grow carrots in barrels.