Mark wrote in
.org:

The garden is currently 'peashingled', and I don't really know what
the ground beneath is like. There are certainly a lot of weeds in the
summer! Can I just remove the plastic and shingle, then dig the ground
over before sowing seeds?


Difficult to say until you take the plastic off and look. With luck,
there is a gorgous loam beneath needing just a quick workover before
planting, but if you are unlucky, there might be a brick heap or an old
concrete slab, or solid rubbery clay with no topsoil at all.

Keep some of the gravel for your herb bed - the herbs you've mentioned
like light stony soil, particularly thyme and rosemary. Rosemary is
pretty tough, but thyme will really appreciate being dry sun, and pea
shingle is ideal for that. I would use it as a mulch for the herb bed,
as it will also make weeding easier.

Whatever you find under the shingle, you'll probably need to improve it,
but you need to know what's under there first.

Runner beans & peas are good in a garden that doesn't get that much sun
- as long as you can get them started well, they will go up the fence
and find the sun up there. I would dig in well-rotted manure (free from
a local stable if you can find one, or you can buy bags at garden
centres) to get them shooting sky-high.

Unless you don't like it, I also suggest you consider rhubarb. It's
incredibly easy to grow, and is one of the few food plants that will
florish with very little direct sun, so you can plonk it in a shady
corner, feed it some manure, and feast on the results for years to come.

In theory you are supposed to let it go a year after planting before you
take any stems off it. I personally don't think this is necessary if
planted with a big pile of compost and manure to get it started: at any
rate I ate mine (variety Victoria!) and it just grew faster.

Victoria
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gardening on a north-facing hill
in South-East Cornwall
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