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from Bill&Ben contains
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We're two aspiring but not successful gardeners in Warwickshire.

My ex-husband used to do all the gardening in the rather large garden
we had previously and my current partner uses the excuse that as he
previously lived in Scotland, there was no point in him trying to grow
anything there.

Huh! Choose the right plants and Scotland will host anything properly
hardy. Some areas (Poolewe, for instance) have sub-tropical plants
growing utside.

Anyhow, we are currently renting a house which has lawned gardens to
the front and back with borders surrounding. The soil is not
particularly good, being full of stones and very heavy and claylike in
areas.

Ah. Pretty good then. Clay is highly nutritious for most plants and the
stones help drainage, and (seemingly a contradiction) help moisture
retention. All you need is some humus in the soil - you can start a
compost 'heap' or maybe your local council sells compoost from a
recycling scheme, peat helps, but has little value as a fertiliser, and
you used to be able to get 'soil conditioner' from sewage works, though
that may have been stopped by Nanny state,or EU regulations, or
something. (You always got a fine crop of tomato seedlings when you put
it on...) The worms will work it into the soil for you.

My questions are, is there anyway that we can improve the drainage in
the bad bits of soil? Also we cleared the borders out this morning
from the reamains of the bedding plants my parents gave us for the
summer. We would like to plant some bulbs but I'm worried that with
the soil being a bit damp at the moment, they will just rot.

See above for helping the drainage. Along with compost/peat/etc, some
sharp sand will help. It will probably help your lawn too: lightly
scatter mixed peat and sharp sand every now and again, and drainage
should improve.

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
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