tina wrote:
We have a northish piece of land. Its currently 1 spades depth of grit
& pebbles & then what looks like clay. We would like to have a go at
growing veg.
If I remove all the pebbles & grit (1 spades depth) & break up the
clay, mix in loads of compost & buy some soil, will it be any good for
growing veg?
Thanks for your help & advice.
p.s. I know its not a good time for growing veg but at least if you
experts think its possible I can get on with digging up all the
pebbles & preparing the soil it will be ready to go when the weather
warms up.
Its 10m by 5m in size.

I don't see why not. You can grow veg in pots, bags and any sort of
containers if the soil is good though! Now is the best time to prepare
your soil. I suspect the area was some sort of drive?! Sounds strange
to have so much pebble and grit )

Top soil and manure on top would be ideal to replace the pebbles. To
get your soil going, potatoes are the best thing as it will help to
break the clay. Have you made a rough plan of your rectangle and
thought about beds and rotating your crops every year? You could
include flowers and herbs all around which would be beneficial for
insects polinators and keeping pests away. I would the soil and clay as
much as you can and lay with well rotten manure on top and leave it to
do it's thing until end of Feb. Then you can start planting your
potatoes and select other areas for anything else you like to grow. The
other areas should be nicely raked over to a fine tilth, to sow your
seeds.