"Janet Baraclough" wrote in message
...
The message
from "John Towill" contains these words:

Having read, well skimmed really, books on gardening, and indeed watched
TV
programs, which profess to sort out difficult gardens, they seem to me
to be
quite easy.
Off they go with a spade and elbow (or should that be knee) grease, a
dollop
of mulch, lo and behold a garden in which they can plant.
My garden has no top soil and consists of what I believe is called
gravel,
which is almost solid pebbles with the gaps filled in with sand and
clay.
Digging means a pickaxe, then I am left with loose pebbles!

Have you read Beth Chatto's book about her gravel garden?

Is the only
cure to import top soil?

No. Just leave the pebbles where they are, don't dig, just keep
mulching, mulching, mulching with whatever organic material you can get
for free.I've seen that done on a raised beach, producing good veg the
first season and fantastic veg (including carrots!) flowers herbs and
fruit just a few years later. The mulches used were mostly seaweed and
bracken, plus a much smaller amount of home made compost and horse
manure.

Janet
Isle of Arran.

Thank you one and all for your inspiring answers. The Jarman Garden looks
wonderful, if only I had the artistic talent to aspire to that. I will have
a look for Beth Chatto's gravel garden book.
I have placed some raised beds in, with some success, but hope to be less
constricted than that. all I need to do now is find a way to exclude the
damned rabbits!
Cheers
John T