In article , [H]omer wrote:

I didn't make it clear before, but my current 'soil' is about 1/2" of
what looks like mainly sand (think the kind of soil you get at the
inland edge of a beach), followed by ???" of clay (I haven't struck rock
yet!!!). Therefore, for all intents and purposes, there is no real soil
on site; I'll have to buy some in.

That smells wrong. I strongly advise analysing it first - your clay
may not be entirely clay. My soil is 60% sand, 18% silt and 22% clay,
and you should likke at various loams - if you have basically clay,
you WANT the sand.

To analyse clay at home, half fill a clear glass wine bottle with
soild from a particular horizon, put a spoonful of washing powder
(the corrosive type) into it, fill up with water and shake until
it is an emulsion. The sand will drop out almost immediately
(20 seconds?), the silt fairly quickly (30 minutes?) and the clay
over a period of days to weeks. Somwhere on the net is the actual
description of the method and times.

Again, you can find it on the net, but look up what a good loam is.
If I recall, equal parts of sand and clay is heavy, but good. Mine
is a fairly sandy loam. If your clay contains a fair amount of
sand, you may want to add a bit more sharp sand or fine gravel (or
small aggregate), but the key is to loosen it. This will be tricky
as diggers compact the soil - so you may need to reverse carefully.

Anyway, while I am no expert, that is roughly right.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.