On Mar 17, 2:22*pm, "Jeff Layman" wrote:
Stuart Noble wrote:
Having a small garden with sandy/stony soil, I've decided to start
from scratch on a couple of raised beds by ditching the existing soil
and replacing it with something better. As this is a small project, I
don't care about the cost of materials but they need to be available
from the garden centre in 25kg bags.
Am I right in thinking that general purpose compost and sharp sand
should form the bulk? Things seem to grow well enough in that medium
but for how long? As a compost bin isn't practical for me, can I buy
the equivalent as a commercial product? Maybe a Phostrogen type
liquid feed would be as good?
Any advice appreciated

As you have sandy/stony soil, I do not understand why you need to buy sharp
sand to make up your growing medium. *Why not get twice as much decent
compost or manure, and mix your current garden soil with that?

If you don't have enough composted material in your soil, you'll be forever
watering if we have a dry summer.

--
Jeff
(cut "thetape" to reply)

Do you have a pH meter to check your soil
B.Shah

On 19 Apr, 13:36, shahwin wrote:
On Mar 17, 2:22*pm, "Jeff Layman" wrote:





Stuart Noble wrote:
Having a small garden with sandy/stony soil, I've decided to start
from scratch on a couple of raised beds by ditching the existing soil
and replacing it with something better. As this is a small project, I
don't care about the cost of materials but they need to be available
from the garden centre in 25kg bags.
Am I right in thinking that general purpose compost and sharp sand
should form the bulk? Things seem to grow well enough in that medium
but for how long? As a compost bin isn't practical for me, can I buy
the equivalent as a commercial product? Maybe a Phostrogen type
liquid feed would be as good?
Any advice appreciated

As you have sandy/stony soil, I do not understand why you need to buy sharp
sand to make up your growing medium. *Why not get twice as much decent
compost or manure, and mix your current garden soil with that?

If you don't have enough composted material in your soil, you'll be forever
watering if we have a dry summer.

--
Jeff
(cut "thetape" to reply)

Do you have a pH meter to check your soil
B.Shah- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

If you buy a Ph meterjust be carefull. check that it is reading OK, I
bought one a few weeks ago, I was supprised to find the field which
hadnt seen any lime for 3 years was giving me a ph reading of 7.5 to 8
and according to it Vinegar was extremly Alkaline, I complained to the
firm importing them and they sent me another , same results, I had to
reverse the wires to get an accurate reading
A lot of these things are mass produced in china ........I say no
more, the old Ph testing kit is a safer bet for small tests.
David Hill