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Mark Allison 18-05-2003 04:56 PM

Need to improve large area of soil
 
Hi,

I have a heavy clay soil - I live one mile away from the largest clay pit
in the world, in fact it was featured on Flying Gardener on Friday night.
The location is Houghton Conquest, Bedfordshire.

Anyway, I have a rectangular area of land to improve measuring 25m x 5m. So
in all that's about 125 square metres of land. I intend to buy some
horticultural grit and the largest pile of muck you ever seen. Question is
where should I get a large quantity of my required substances? I reckon I
need at least a ton of grit, and I'm having trouble sourcing a large
quantity of manure at the moment. The land will be used mainly to produce
vegetables and herbs next year, I'm spending this year preparing the soil.

Any hints appreciated!

A view of my plot can be seen he
http://www.markallison.co.uk/garden/garden.gif

--
Mark Allison, SQL Server MVP
http://www.allisonmitchell.com



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bnd777 18-05-2003 05:20 PM

Need to improve large area of soil
 
Farmers, livery stables , Riding stables


"Mark Allison" wrote in message
34.3...
Hi,

I have a heavy clay soil - I live one mile away from the largest clay pit
in the world, in fact it was featured on Flying Gardener on Friday night.
The location is Houghton Conquest, Bedfordshire.

Anyway, I have a rectangular area of land to improve measuring 25m x 5m.

So
in all that's about 125 square metres of land. I intend to buy some
horticultural grit and the largest pile of muck you ever seen. Question is
where should I get a large quantity of my required substances? I reckon I
need at least a ton of grit, and I'm having trouble sourcing a large
quantity of manure at the moment. The land will be used mainly to produce
vegetables and herbs next year, I'm spending this year preparing the soil.

Any hints appreciated!

A view of my plot can be seen he
http://www.markallison.co.uk/garden/garden.gif

--
Mark Allison, SQL Server MVP
http://www.allisonmitchell.com



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Dave Liquorice 18-05-2003 06:08 PM

Need to improve large area of soil
 
On 18 May 2003 10:01:09 -0500, Mark Allison wrote:

Anyway, I have a rectangular area of land to improve measuring 25m x
5m. So in all that's about 125 square metres of land.

snip
I reckon I need at least a ton of grit, ...


Think you'll need more than that, thats only about 1cm depth over that
area, probably less. I think you'll be looking at closer to 5 tonnes.

... and I'm having trouble sourcing a large quantity of manure at
the moment.


Any local stables, they normally can't get rid of the stuff. Of course
you ideally want something rotted. Though as you are only soil
conditioning this year partially rotted would probably do. Again
you'll be looking at few tonnes. A lot of work to dig in by hand,
suggest a decent rotavator, go over the soil first to break it up (if
possible) spread the manure and grit and go over again.


--
Cheers
Dave. Remove "spam" for valid email.




Mike 18-05-2003 06:20 PM

Need to improve large area of soil
 
In article , Mark
Allison writes
Hi,

I have a heavy clay soil - I live one mile away from the largest clay pit
in the world, in fact it was featured on Flying Gardener on Friday night.
The location is Houghton Conquest, Bedfordshire.

Anyway, I have a rectangular area of land to improve measuring 25m x 5m. So
in all that's about 125 square metres of land. I intend to buy some
horticultural grit and the largest pile of muck you ever seen. Question is
where should I get a large quantity of my required substances? I reckon I
need at least a ton of grit, and I'm having trouble sourcing a large
quantity of manure at the moment. The land will be used mainly to produce
vegetables and herbs next year, I'm spending this year preparing the soil.

Any hints appreciated!

A view of my plot can be seen he
http://www.markallison.co.uk/garden/garden.gif


Many years ago I was informed that the type f grit which is really
required to improve clay soil, (I was on clay at that time and took note
of the comment) was the grit which is picked up in the gutter from the
road sweeper. At that time I did nothing about it, but years later when
I did see the piles of grit emptied from the road sweeper, I remembered
what had been said.

Just an idea, but contact the authority who sweeps your roads?

Others have pointed to Riding Stables and 'Horsey' environments :-))

(If you were on the Isle of Wight, I could invite you to clear tonnes of
well rotted Leaf Mould from the site I am working on :-)) A friend is
coming with Land Rover and Trailer on Tuesday, complete with Chain Saw
to take a 'few' logs for his wood burning stove. :-))

Mike
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Forthcoming reunions. H.M.S.Collingwood Association Chatham May 30th - June 2nd
British Pacific Fleet Hayling Island Sept 5th - 8th
Castle Class Corvettes Assn. Isle of Wight. Oct 3rd - 6th.
R.N. Trafalgar Weekend Leamington Spa. Oct 10th - 13th. Plus many more






Ken Saunders 18-05-2003 08:44 PM

Need to improve large area of soil
 
Mark Allison wrote in message . 234.3...
Hi,

I have a heavy clay soil - I live one mile away from the largest clay pit
in the world, in fact it was featured on Flying Gardener on Friday night.
The location is Houghton Conquest, Bedfordshire.

Anyway, I have a rectangular area of land to improve measuring 25m x 5m. So
in all that's about 125 square metres of land. I intend to buy some
horticultural grit and the largest pile of muck you ever seen. Question is
where should I get a large quantity of my required substances? I reckon I
need at least a ton of grit, and I'm having trouble sourcing a large
quantity of manure at the moment. The land will be used mainly to produce
vegetables and herbs next year, I'm spending this year preparing the soil.

Any hints appreciated!

A view of my plot can be seen he
http://www.markallison.co.uk/garden/garden.gif

--
Mark Allison, SQL Server MVP
http://www.allisonmitchell.com



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Stables for manu Usually free if you collect.Otherwise you pay
to haVE it delivered. i.e. drivers time and costs....Regards Ken

Anthony E Anson 18-05-2003 09:56 PM

Need to improve large area of soil
 
The message
from Mark Allison contains these words:

Anyway, I have a rectangular area of land to improve measuring 25m x 5m. So
in all that's about 125 square metres of land. I intend to buy some
horticultural grit and the largest pile of muck you ever seen. Question is
where should I get a large quantity of my required substances? I reckon I
need at least a ton of grit, and I'm having trouble sourcing a large
quantity of manure at the moment. The land will be used mainly to produce
vegetables and herbs next year, I'm spending this year preparing the soil.


I suggest you halve the plot. When you get the manure, spread it over
the whole plot. It doesn't matter whether you put the grit on top or the
other way round, though I'd tend to put the grit on the manure.

Cover one half with straw and old cardboard, get the cardboard wet
through then peg black polythene over it and leave it for a year. (ish)
You can make small discs of plywood, metal, plastic, make a hole inthe
middle and drive pegs through them and the polythene to collect water
and let it through. The pegging will give a quilted effect, and the rain
will run into the depressions and through.

The other half, I'd really go to town on. Cover the manure and grit with
old cardboard, woollen carpets without foam backing (if you can get them
now - firms aren't supposed to let you have old carpet.) more manure,
then cover the area with one thickness of bales of straw.

Save as much urine as possible and water the straw with it, diluted,
until the bales are wet through. Cover with black polythene and leave
like that for two years.

After the two years (or when the worms have done their work) se the new
plot and then treat the other side the same way as your heavily strawed
part.

--
Tony
Replace solidi with dots to reply: tony/anson snailything zetnet/co/uk

http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi

bnd777 18-05-2003 11:56 PM

Need to improve large area of soil
 
You can also get spent hops from breweries
and many Sewerage companies were happy to deliver dried sewerage free
.........dont know if this has been stopped but i know someone who used lorry
loads of it on his clay soil and he grew all his own veg
Lots of carpet shops dump old carpet outside


"Mark Allison" wrote in message
34.3...
Hi,

I have a heavy clay soil - I live one mile away from the largest clay pit
in the world, in fact it was featured on Flying Gardener on Friday night.
The location is Houghton Conquest, Bedfordshire.

Anyway, I have a rectangular area of land to improve measuring 25m x 5m.

So
in all that's about 125 square metres of land. I intend to buy some
horticultural grit and the largest pile of muck you ever seen. Question is
where should I get a large quantity of my required substances? I reckon I
need at least a ton of grit, and I'm having trouble sourcing a large
quantity of manure at the moment. The land will be used mainly to produce
vegetables and herbs next year, I'm spending this year preparing the soil.

Any hints appreciated!

A view of my plot can be seen he
http://www.markallison.co.uk/garden/garden.gif

--
Mark Allison, SQL Server MVP
http://www.allisonmitchell.com



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Steve Harris 19-05-2003 01:05 AM

Need to improve large area of soil
 
Consider Kerria Japonica instead. Grows to about 6', spreads slowly,
nice yellow flowers. Cheap

Steve Harris - Cheltenham - Real address steve AT netservs DOT com

Steve Harris 19-05-2003 03:54 AM

Need to improve large area of soil
 
Sorry, wrong thread!

Steve Harris - Cheltenham - Real address steve AT netservs DOT com

Steve Harris 19-05-2003 04:44 AM

Need to improve large area of soil
 
Sorry, wrong thread!

Steve Harris - Cheltenham - Real address steve AT netservs DOT com

Bruce Ella 26-05-2003 10:59 AM

Need to improve large area of soil
 
Hi Mark,

the website for the uk.rec.gardening has advice on improving soil which I
have just tried out... using building grit (£29 per ton from wickes) to
improve drainage and plaster (finishing plaster at wickes £3 for £25), which
contains gypsum and apparently floculates the clay. Step by step procedure
at http://www.tmac.clara.co.uk/urgring/faqsoil1.htm

looks a bit weird when the soil goes white/grey from the plaster, but that
improves once you mix it in.

good luck

kind regards
Bruce




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