Jaques d'Alltrades wrote:
The message
from Bill&Ben
contains
these words:

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.

What he said. Things are hardly ever as bad as one thinks! The
previous occupants lived with it, after all. Go ahead and put in
whatever bulbs you can get: few if any will rot. It's theoretically a
bit late, but that won't matter: you'll only have to wait a couple of
weeks longer for your daffodils etc to flower.

When you say the soil's not well-drained, do you just mean it's
rather too claggy to work easily at the moment, or do you get puddles
forming quickly in the bottom of any holes you dig on a dry day? If
there are any trees or shrubs in there which look happy enough, and
if the lawn didn't squelch when you walked on it in the summer, I
doubt if you've got a drainage problem.

Almost any general gardening book that isn't so detailed that it puts
you off will be a great help; but I very much like one called
"Everything you need to know about gardening but were afraid to ask"
by Rob Cassy and Valerie Scriven, published by Frances Lincoln Ltd, 4
Torriano Mews, Torriano Avenue, London NW5 2RZ. It's very short, very
good-looking, and devoted to the idea that this gardening thing is a
piece of cake, which it is. You've got to love a book with a chapter
called "There's no such thing as a problem garden".

Get back to us, anyhow.

Mike.