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Old 18-05-2003, 06:20 PM
Mike
 
Posts: n/a
Default Need to improve large area of soil

In article , Mark
Allison writes
Hi,

I have a heavy clay soil - I live one mile away from the largest clay pit
in the world, in fact it was featured on Flying Gardener on Friday night.
The location is Houghton Conquest, Bedfordshire.

Anyway, I have a rectangular area of land to improve measuring 25m x 5m. So
in all that's about 125 square metres of land. I intend to buy some
horticultural grit and the largest pile of muck you ever seen. Question is
where should I get a large quantity of my required substances? I reckon I
need at least a ton of grit, and I'm having trouble sourcing a large
quantity of manure at the moment. The land will be used mainly to produce
vegetables and herbs next year, I'm spending this year preparing the soil.

Any hints appreciated!

A view of my plot can be seen he
http://www.markallison.co.uk/garden/garden.gif


Many years ago I was informed that the type f grit which is really
required to improve clay soil, (I was on clay at that time and took note
of the comment) was the grit which is picked up in the gutter from the
road sweeper. At that time I did nothing about it, but years later when
I did see the piles of grit emptied from the road sweeper, I remembered
what had been said.

Just an idea, but contact the authority who sweeps your roads?

Others have pointed to Riding Stables and 'Horsey' environments :-))

(If you were on the Isle of Wight, I could invite you to clear tonnes of
well rotted Leaf Mould from the site I am working on :-)) A friend is
coming with Land Rover and Trailer on Tuesday, complete with Chain Saw
to take a 'few' logs for his wood burning stove. :-))

Mike
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