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Sub soil? Or base of old driveway?

January ManJanuary Man Posts: 212
in Problem solving

Hi

Over the last year or two we've been landscaping our garden to get it looking nice and to create more areas for growing veg.  We created a new parking area which allowed us to dig up some of the old driveway and convert it into beds.  I've been digging today in one of these beds to get ready for growing.  I had previously put some top soil on the bed from elsewhere in the garden, so it now has a good few inches on top.  However, beneath this is a light coloured sandy and stony "soil" and to my untrained eye I'm not sure if it is subsoil, or the base layer of the old driveway.  Can anyone with more experience tell what it is by looking at these photos?  

The old driveway was shingled.  In fact, the shingle you can see at the top of the first photo IS the old driveway (we kept some of it as a path).  

I'm thinking of bagging up some of the sandy / stony "soil" and getting rid of it so that the top soil is deeper in the bed.  Does that sound like a good idea or a waste of time?  

Happy to post more photos if they would help.

Any thoughts would be most appreciated. 

Huge thanks

Max

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Last edited: 02 April 2017 12:54:37

Posts

  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,384

    It looks like the base of the old drive to me so would have been compacted when the drive was laid.  I would remove it from beneath where you want to grow veggies so you have at least 30cm of soil on top.  If it goes deeper than that you could break it up below 30cm with a fork and mix it with soil as you go.

    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • January ManJanuary Man Posts: 212

    Hi again

    Thanks for the reply Bob.

    A quick update...  I have dug down further now in a nearby spot and the light coloured sandy stuff goes on and on.  I'm down almost 4 foot, and 3 and a half foot of it is this same sandy stuff.  I also initially thought if it was some kind of driveway base layer, but would it be anywhere near that thick/deep is so?  Yet on the other hand it seems a little "unnatural" to be subsoil, although - to be honest - I'm not too familiar with such things so that's a very uneducated guess.

    We are on a septic tank where we live, so it might have something to do with the soakaway???  

    Any guesses?

    I'll dig a little deeper and take some photos to add to the thread.

    Cheers  

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