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Preparing hard-packed soil to start a garden from scratch
Emily Cooper3
Posts: 2
Hi everyone, thanks for taking the time to look at this.
We've just moved into a new house. The garden has been completely covered over with wooden boards, plastic sheeting and astroturf for a number of years.
We've just taken all of this up. The soil underneath is obviously very hard and compacted, and seems clay-like.
What do you recommend we do to turn this into lovely loose, rich soil ready for planting? This is our first garden and we want to get off to the best possible start!
Thanks very much.
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Posts
Sounds like a job for a rotovator. If it's hard packed you will probably need to give the garden a thorough watering before getting to work with the rotovator. Once you've dug it over you'll have a better idea what the ground is actually like and can then make a decision as to whether you need to add compost, horse manure etc.
If the garden isn't too big I would dig it first, get down deeper. Then dig in compost and manure if you can get it. That's what I've done in the past. It takes a bit of work and time to get the soil you describe.
How large of an area? As BL suggested, a double dig would be your best bet if it's not a huge space. Otherwise, rent a rotovator. Regardless of your soil type, a load of well rotted manure would not go amiss.
I know it's harder , but digging first is best.
The rotovator will go to a certain depth and what's underneath will form a " pan " a hard layer which water and roots will find it difficult to penetrate, especially if it's on the heavy side. Sandy soils aren't so bad.
Then dig in as much manure, compost etc as you can get your hands on.
I'd agree - rotovators can create more problems than they solve. Digging's good exercise too.
A load of manure on the top over winter will really help but if you want to get going with plants this year, sort a small area thoroughly by digging, removing weeds as previously mentioned, mixing in compost as you go, and then manure the rest this winter. It depends how big the area is of course - if it's small then do the whole lot. You can buy bagged manure from GCs. The ground will be easier to deal with next spring.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Another, lazier option is to just cover what's there with a soil conditioner mulch (I used loads of compost from the tip) in a thick layer and wait. That's what I did. We moved into a place covered in weed membrane and gravel and beneath that clay. I find when I work clay, it just brings up lumps which turn into rocks this time of year. I managed to put in some roses and other things and they took off (clay can be quite rich) and direct sowed easy annuals into the compost layer. Of course I don't plant vegetables and don't imagine they would do very well. And this time of year it's very hard to move plants. But I figure there is the same soil all around me and in the fallow fields and woods, where things are allowed to lie on the soil, plants grow fine. Where the fields are plowed, in dry spells it turns into rocky lumps. My soil is healthy with lots of worms and I notice a difference in areas where I haven't put such a thick layer originally (harder to work). My husband says I'm just lazy and he's probably right!
Just googling this and I do see "for extreme compaction you may have to physically loosen the soil." Still, if digging is too hard, it's worth a try at least in some beds.
This is what a part of my garden looked liked less than two years ago
compacted rough grass.
Dug over and a layer of manure put on it - it now has plants looking like this
The effort you put in now will pay off.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Thank you all so much for replying, you've been really helpful.
It's not a huge garden - about 16m x 6m - so sounds like digging over is the way forward. We might rotavate the area we're covering in turf, and dig over the rest maybe, as I guess grass doesn't have very deep roots.
Thanks for the heads-up on where to buy manure too, Fairygirl, I was wondering where I'd get hold of such a thing in London! I did read somewhere that the best thing is to leave it over winter, so perhaps we'll just do enough this summer to be able to actually use the garden, and leave most of the beds til next year. That plant with the little white flowers is beautiful.
Also good to know the procedure for digging it in, thanks Verdun.