"Nick Maclaren" wrote in
"Farm1" please@askifyouwannaknow writes:
|
| I seem to recall that you have an African connection ????? so may
know
| my trick. I've often had to resort to the dig a bit, pour in
water,
| wait a day, dig a bit, pour in water etc.

Yup. One go is enough here, with 60% sand, but heat-hardened clay
and
some alkaline soils are right b*gg*rs in that respect. That trick
is
well worth remembering.

I'd love to be able to forget it but each year I seem to need a hole
somewhere in mid summer. Sigh!

My worst task where I had to use this technique (but thankfully not to
any huge depth) was the rose garden here. When we moved here the rose
bed had about 70 roses (in regimental rows - male garden 'designer').
The soil was topped by weed mat and on top of the weed mat was about 6
inches of pine bark. The roses flowered but were nnot healthy. I
started stripping all this crud off (took me years!) and the only
place I found worms was above the weed mat. The ground under the mat
was set like concrete. It made me realise how tough roses truly are
and how their middle eastern origins served them well..