Virgin growing ground help.

[Ricard with an H]

I have an area within my paddock that was so poor that even grass and weeds were patchy so 5/6 years ago I used the area for cutting mostly hardwoods for the fire. The build-up of rotted chippings and lumps of wood meant the area started to look untidy so I decided to have a clear-up. The rotted wood chippings have gone black, when I rake over it the whole things smells like a forest floor.

Because there is so much stone in the soil I don't want to dig, not even with a machine, on raking the soil/woodchippings I get the feeling this might be a good no-dig growing medium though the only way I can prove it is by sowing some quick to germinate seed like salad or rocket.

Most of the wood chippings and dust is well aged and rotted, the last cut I did was last summer. Do you think the nitrogen-robbing effect will still be there ?

So many of you people must have broken some terrible ground for growing stuff so I had to ask and I just could not find any reading on the matter.

It's like black-glod and smells lovely but I know there are masses of stone underneath. Remember the stone from my planting trench for the sea buckthorn.

[Primrose]

Well it obviously won't be any good for crops like root vegetables but it may be worth trying for crops which only have roots growing just below the surface like onions or shallots or salad leaves of various kinds. I'd be tempted to use this season as a pilot scheme and try growing half.a dozen of lots of different vegs like this and see what happens. Too much effort won't have been wasted if they're not a success and some results may surprise you. Your success or failure will probably also depend on how sunny the patch is and ground moisture retention. I wonder if Sweetcorn might be worth a try......or possibly a herb bed if it's stoney because many of them, like thyme or rosemary usually do well on dry stoney ground.

[Motherwoman]

How deep is your chip layer Richard? As Primrose says, shallow rooters and give it a try. You can always add a nitrogen rich fertilizer to counteract any robbing effect. I have a really stoney rough strip at the top of my allotment, it's very close to an old chalk/flint pit, and I ended up with thyme and oregano in there which seems to love it and I have lots of herbs to dry for winter.

MW

[Ricard with an H]

How deep is your chip layer Richard? As Primrose says, shallow rooters and give it a try.

The chip layer can be minimal, the point I didn't make is that I would like to use the rotted chip to break the heavy soil. Question is, how rotted is safe. It's entirely probable you can't answer and in-hindsite it's entirely probable the only answer would be a scientific soil-test but you have given me a massive clue.

Chicken pellets.

The very best solution for this site is a raised bed but a raised bed needs soil. Buying top soil and moving it is heavy work for my ageing bones. Part of the site has already been successfully used for a small comfrey plantation though that part of the site hadn't been covered in oak chippings.

I'm sort-of answering my own questions though any positive input is always helpful to encourage me.

This gardening thing started 12 months ago with my lovely lady suggesting a couple of small raised beds in a tiny corner of our domestic area that would have been filled by a few bags of compost from the garden centre. I have now shifted several tons of top soil, several tons of stones, planted 100 sea buckthorn as a wind break and have 30 square metres of raised-bed planting.

The plot in question here is one of two of around 50 square metres, one will be used to create more flowers for our insects, not as easy as you may think. The other will be an extension of my expansionist gardening project.

What do you people do when you holiday ? We're heading to far the north west for two weeks and I daren't leave my planting and seedlings to a single neighbour who may, or may-not open my greenhouse and lift the lids of my cold frames every sunny morning before eight and check the water needs of everything twice daily.

Just as well I didn't go for chickens Eh.

[Motherwoman]

Hi Richard,

You've been well and truely hooked by the growing bug! I think you've just got to try it and see with the plot, but the more you can put on the better it will turn into soil. A side order of worms from an active bit of soil will help.

Holiday? What's one of those then?

MW

[Ricard with an H]

Oh-yes, well and truly hooked.

Regarding this virgin land, I know the answer but i'm looking for an excuse for an easy solution and taking the easy path has never been the way I do things.

The solution would to hire a rotovator for the day and dig a cubic metre of cow poo into it with some sand then let the worms do their work.

Another question, some time ago on this forum, there was a debate about the use of rotovators. At least one comment-or was against the use of a machine though I don't remember the reason. Was it to do with chopping weed-roots that would multiply ?

I think have a fairly good reason not to use a machine, my top soil is thin and I don't want to drag the subsoil upwards. I had an experience with subsoil last year, nothing grows in it but certain weed species that would grow in sand.

Planting trenches might be a good idea, I did this with the sea buckthorn, a spade width trench about two spades deep where you remove most of the stone then treat the trench with organic stuff. Leave a gap of maybe two scaffold boards wide then another trench.