Forum home› Problem solving
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Top Soil

WaterbutWaterbut Posts: 344
in Problem solving
I have cleared my vegetable garden patch and removed the top layer and ready to put in a new layer of soil ready for my garlic. Would GC topsoil with added manure be any good? Or should I just buy bags of compost or just use GC manure. Sadly my compost heap is empty at present. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I have kept the small stones to aerate the soil. Thanks.
«13

Posts

  • AnniDAnniD Posts: 12,585
    *Bumping up*  :)
  • FireBat69FireBat69 Posts: 29
    Just for the experience, my garlic grows with less porosity soil but has a lot of organic materials in it. Don't know because I am from a tropical country.
    I really don't have a Good backyard. But used my balcony as container Gardening place. No stopping from my passion.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    I’m a little confused by the process you describe ie ‘removed the top layer’ and now you’re ready to put in ‘a new layer of soil’. 

    Is this a veg patch on open ground or is it a raised bed?

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • WaterbutWaterbut Posts: 344
    I put a small 4 sided wall about 1 ft high in open ground at the top end of my garden and filled with GC compost and GC manure as the clay content was high. Planted garlic and onions in it for 3 consecutive years now the soil needs replacing as this years crop were a bit on the small side. I found these were the only two crops that slugs and snails left alone.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited August 2023
    Ah! see 😊 Then I would go with the topsoil with added manure. 👍 

    Then in future you should be able to just add manure rather than removing the soil. 



    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • FireBat69FireBat69 Posts: 29
    edited August 2023
    arossrob said:
    I put a small 4 sided wall about 1 ft high in open ground at the top end of my garden and filled with GC compost and GC manure as the clay content was high. Planted garlic and onions in it for 3 consecutive years now the soil needs replacing as this years crop were a bit on the small side. I found these were the only two crops that slugs and snails left alone.
    I could suggest you add more organic materials on the soil instead of removing the top soil. it just ran out of nutrients for your garlic and onions.
    I really don't have a Good backyard. But used my balcony as container Gardening place. No stopping from my passion.
  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    edited August 2023
    I suggest that you start by reading a good vegetable growing book.  You seem  to have picked up some weird ideas.
     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
  • WaterbutWaterbut Posts: 344
    Thank you FireBat69. I will do that but I had to remove the top layer as it was up to the top of my small wall which is in the middle of my very large top border.
    Dear bede I have read more gardening books than you have had hot suppers. What on earth, sorry about the pun, is weird about asking about the use of top soil which I have never used before.
  • Busy-LizzieBusy-Lizzie Posts: 24,043
    Don't take any notice of bédé, he often pops in with that sort of comment, though it sounds as though you can take care of yourself!
    Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Spread manure over the bed in the late autumn/winter and leave it. The worms will drag it down into the soil, it will break down and virtually disappear over the winter, leaving you with reinvigorated soil that takes up little to no more space than before. 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





Sign In or Register to comment.