First let's work out what your topsoil is made of. Have a look at the
advice at BBC - Gardening - How to be a gardener - Know your plot - Soil types. Once you've worked out what your
soil is, reply to this thread and we'll go from there. It'll also help
if you let us know how big the plot is and is it level or does it
slope (a decent slope in one direction offers some promise for
drainage)? Often knowing which direction it faces helps ('cos we know
where the sunlight comes from) but from what you say it's surrounded,
and shaded, on all sides.

Cheers
Jake[/quote]

Thanks for that, and the useful link. I've done the jam-jar test, and I reckon I've probably got a clay/loam mix. After two hours, I had quite cloudy water, with a sustantial layer of soil on the bottom, in two distict strata; fine on top, course on the bottom. I haven't done a Ph test, but in this part of the world, I think I can fairly safely say it's acid.

The plot faces north, in the shade of a three storey building. No sun whatsoever (even on those rare days when in shines!) in winter, and up to 8 hours in mid-summer, before 10 and after 2pm - in these latitudes, the sun rises in the north-east and sets in the north-west for most of June. In midwinter, it hardly rises at all, and it certainly doesn't hit this plot. It gets quite windy though, in a natural wind tunnel, and I would guess that will aid evaporation.

The plot is about 7x7m, and dead level.

Whilst I can see the merit in shrubs, perrennials, etc. my neighbours, all of whom have a share in the ground, are determined that grass is the way to go, so I am kind of in their hands.

Ian