On Thu, 5 May 2011 10:42:44 +0000, mudcow007
wrote:


afternoon all, recently purchased our first house and have really only
been concentrating on the house but the time has finally come when i'm
allowed (my girlfriend is the boss!!) to get stuck into the garden.

the garden itself is not that big, but its quite steep (probably a
gradual difference of 4ft from the top of the garden to the bottom). i
have removed over 15 tonne of concrete that the previous owners had laid
down. this has caused the ground to be quite "undulating"

im currently in the process of wheelbarrowing 19 tonne of soil that was
kindly given to me by a neighbor (who was digging a swimming pool) so im
trying to get the garden to sort of level. i understand that it will
never be flat but i don't mind.

the soil that i was given seems to be sub soil. so far i haven't found
one worm (that's a bad sign im guessing!!) whilst digging in it. i have
been in touch with local horse riding stables who said that i can have
as much manure as i want (which was nice of them) so im going to put
loads of rotten manure in hoping that it will improve the quality of the
soil

i have to build a retaining wall/ fence at the bottom of the garden to
stop all the soil i brought in ending in the garden behind us too, looks
like im going to be a busy boy this summer

is there anything else i can do to improve the soil quality?

how it started

[image: http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c8.../thestart.jpg]

getting there

[image:
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c8...tingthere.jpg]

I'd consider the gift of pool excavation soil as fill, then rather
than attempt to improve it, I'd still have some good top soil
delivered to place about 10" atop the pool fill. I'd not add the free
manure until it composts... then use it as top dressing

I'd have laid down those jack hammered concrete slabs to build a
retaining wall to keep your soil from washing onto your neighbor's
property... would save you a ton of money having to buy retaining wall
material and having to haul away perfectly good masonary wall building
material. Lay the slabs like bricks while filling the spaces with
soil... there are many plants that will easily grow between the slabs,
won't be too long no one will notice that it's just broken up
concrete.