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Janet · 14-02-2012, 11:21 AM posted to uk.rec.gardening

In article ,
says...

I may be worrying too much about the nutrient content.

Rain will leach out nutrients over time, and plants take them up; so
they are a diminishing resource and to keep cropping the same soil
gardeners have to replace the lost nutrients.
There is no instant, lasting one-off solution, look on it as a permanent
program of soil improvement.To redress the stony alkaline soil you have
I'd recommend copious amounts of homemade compost (which tends towards
acidic); so start thinking where you can obtain large amounts of vegetable
matter and manure to make it with.

I did plant a few
vegetables last year: tomatoes and beans and broccili, and they grew
perfectly healthily. Weeds absolutely LOVE the soil here. There is one weed
(something edible, and related to celery, I'm told), with very deep
tuberous roots, that I have been at war with constantly. The roots go so
deep that it is almost impossible to dig them out. My latest battle-plan
has been to use weed killer. We'll see if that works.

I'd suggest you build a compost heap and to fill it, keep cropping the
"celery like" topgrowth hard. Constantly frustrating photosynthesis will
eventually cause the roots to die in situ.

I'd be very wary of trusting that particular kind of unidentified weed
to be safely edible; " tuberous root and celery look" includes some of
the most poisonous.

Janet.