On Mar 27, 12:05*pm, lemmy wrote:
We have a patch at the end of our garden about 7.5x 4.5 feet. Because of previous building here, the earth is very sandy and unproductive and is London clay anyway.

It is very hard to get any vegetables to grow on it except tomatoes.

I have put a pic of it at

http://www.dthorpe.net/viewing

My wife suggests raising it and filling with decent topsoil. How high would be suitable and what depth of top soil would it need to be for both ease of working and decent growing. What kind of earth? Is raising it a good idea at all? I simply have no experience of this at all.

All advice gratefully received!

Looking at your picture, I would say your problem is lack of
sunlight. Virtually no vegetables grow in an area that has a lot of
shade. You need 9 or 10 hours sunlight a day in Summer. The only
exception I can think of is potatos & even they are better in the sun.
In the shade the ground remains cold for a lot longer after Winter too
meaning planting times have to be later.

The soil looks OK. Maybe needs compost or manure. Topsoil is only
subsoil with organic matter added. You can pick a few of the bigger
stones out.
If you notice water pooling on the surface of the soil in wet weather
you may need to attend to the drainage. First choice by doubledigging.

Check the Ph of the soil with a kit if you want to be scientific.

BTW, sand and clay are opposite ends of the spectrum. It can't be
both.