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!

"lemmy" wrote in message
...
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!

Freecycle, or at least my local one, is always coming up with topsoil.
Raising it may or may not be good idea because of drainage, it will always
need more watering than the non-raised part of the garden. Adding a goodly
quantity of manure should help. Chelsea Barracks may let you have some. I
don't know what the manure situation is in Nodnol, I live in Dorset, and
manure is readily available free.

Steve

"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!

.................................................. ...

A clay and sand mixture sounds like perfect growing soil. Probably just
needs a good dose of manure/compost to bring it back to life.

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
W.of London. UK

In article ,
says...

"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!

.................................................. ..

A clay and sand mixture sounds like perfect growing soil. Probably just
needs a good dose of manure/compost to bring it back to life.

My thoughts too.

Janet

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.

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

The sand comes from the building work and is totally mixed in with the
clay.

Thanks for the thoughts - we've dosed the soil up with compost etc and
the problem remains. I have a feeling that the problem is as Harry
says, a lack of sunlight.

"lemmy" wrote in message
...

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

The sand comes from the building work and is totally mixed in with the
clay.

Thanks for the thoughts - we've dosed the soil up with compost etc and
the problem remains. I have a feeling that the problem is as Harry
says, a lack of sunlight.

What's the status of that tree we can just see the bottom of? If that's
alive and growing, it's roots are going to be taking all the water and
nutrients. Plus of course its foliage overshadowing the plot.

Steve