Hi there...

Living in an apartment block, I only have a very
small bit of actual land. Most of my plants this
year are planned for buckets.

But I do have an area totally maybe 3 square
metres (about 3 sq yrds?) right up in front of the
building. So I figure that I might as well use
it.

I hand-tilled the area a couple of days ago, and,
maybe 5-10 cm down, ran into a plastic woven mat,
and, apparantly, solid rock.

My new idea is to buy some "garden edging," which
is a bunch of small wood rectangles wired together
on the back.
http://www.mitre10.co.nz/products/item.asp?iCatego
ryID=9&lSKU=635886&loggedin=False

This will help with building up a small bed, with
maybe 20-25 cm of soil depth.

So, for 3 sq metres, and adding, say 10 new cm of
soil...

What should I use? The closest/easiest thing is
"potting mix" with peat and bark. (That is what I
am using for my bucket-bound plants.) I can go
downtown for some sheep manure if that would be
better, though. (I live in the 'burbs, so a
truckload of horse manure, etc, is out of the
question.)

And, generally, I am very interested in
suggestions for veggies that will work with that
soil depth. I am doing a bit of research to find
the best spacing. Since this is my first year,
and I a focussed upon just learning, I am open to
anything. My plans include maybe some lettuce,
broccoli, capsicum (bell pepper), and ???
(Whatever will fit.

(Tomatoes are scheduled for late Oct, in 20-litre
buckets.)

Thanks in advance for your advice!


--
Guide To DIY Living
http://www.self-reliance.co.nz
(Work in progress)