On 17 Feb 2007 09:05:07 -0800, "La Puce" wrote:

No I dont think there that big, 3 beds 21 railway sleepers in total.
1 sleper high, but I plan to dig well into the solid clay & put some
land drainage pipes in to help with the drainage, then chuck all the
compost etc on top of the pipes.

Or am I going over the top??
On 17 Feb, 16:46, tina wrote:
Luckily I have a friend who works at a stables who has offered me some
horse manure, as well as a friend who owns 300 chickens who has also
offered me some chicken manure.
In readiness for my plot I set up 5 compost bins, although it doesnt
look to have composted sufficiently yet.
I have an oak tree at the end of the garden & I collected 5 black bin
bags full of leaves, & shredded them, so plan to chuck that in s well.
I'm also going to buy a couple of 8ft by 4ft plaster boards & chuck
those in as well in the hope that the gypsum in the boards may help to
break the solid clay up a bit.

That's great but how BIG are those beds of yours?! Sounds huge! I've
made lots of raised beds, at home and at the lotty. At home I used top
soil, followed by lots and lots of OM on top. They are were a garage
used to be for perhaps 100 years and the ground had lots of layers of
rubbles, concrete, sand, tarmac ... I just blasted the lot with a
hamer and pick axe and build upon it. In the lotty my beds are no more
higher than 30cm, on an area with clay just like yours (my younger
kid made a family of little frogs sculptures with it with stones for
eyes ... dried in the sun). I've just added OM, grass and leaves and
within about 3 years they are all really beautiful now. Ideally these
should have been done in the autumn - but given 2 months or so, they
should be ready for all your planting out in April )