Kitchen Garden Forum

This growing-stuff lark has really pandered to my state of happiness, even though these first two seasons have been difficult because of the construction and digging I find it so lovely to see things growing and even though I couldn't possibly eat all that I grow now I really do want at-least another ten square metres of raised bed.

Biggest problem is sourcing the top-soil at a reasonable cost and I really do think that over £100 for that Rolawn stuff is unreasonable. I bet I could get a direct-delivery of a quality growing medium in 60 litre bags for that sort of money and it would be easier to handle.

My sticky-stony soil has really benefitted from the addition of sand, peat-free and peat-based composts.

Lol, that's the thing with vegetable growing, you never have enough growing space and are always looking for ways and places to grow a few more varieties in

VPM
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vegpatchmum wrote:Lol, that's the thing with vegetable growing, you never have enough growing space.

Right-now I need appropriate space for fennel, I grew fennel last year and hadn't realised how much space it needs and the depth of the roots are such that the plant suggests deep-digging though I don't know what soil fennel likes. I just realised I had inappropriately planted stuff into fertile soil that likes 'poor soil'. I'm not sure what 'poor soil' means but i'm guessing if weeds grow in it and nothing else it'll be 'poor-soil'.

Remember my planting trench for the sea-buckthorn wind-break ? I'm going to dig another trench about fifteen foot long and eighteen inches wide for the fennel, problem is that the trench will have grass on either sider which means migrating weeds and traveling roots. You have to be zen-like when digging Pembrokeshire virgin soil, even the arable farming round here is to be admired for courage.

So-yes, I still have an acre to go at but I do want raised beds. So much easier once established and the cost of materials is less than half of what I see in catalogues. Do you think it's silly to consider buying planting medium from the garden centre type outlet than bulking it up with garden waste compost and whatever soil becomes available.

Some of you allotment people must have had to be very diverse on occasion, and using what you have and what comes for-free has to be a gift.

Ricard with an H wrote:I'm not sure what 'poor soil' means but i'm guessing if weeds grow in it and nothing else it'll be 'poor-soil'.

What is it you needed to plant in poor soil? I can't think of any crops which prefer poor soil. Some crops do poorly if they are grown in soils which are over-fed, especially with nitrogen, which can lead them to grow cock-eyed, one way or another. But weeds are no indicator of soil condition. They just grow wherever there is space and opportunity. Nettles actually prefer a rich soil, which is why they are so abundant around the edges of fields, benefiting from nutrient run-off.
Fennel likes a fair bit of nutriment, and it does have a tap root. But I wouldn't have thought stones would be any sort of hindrance. it's only root crops whose actual root is eaten, such as parsnips and carrots, which can be distorted by stones. I used to garden on an extremely stoney site, which my neighbours pronounced on as being poor. I found it to be nothing of the sort: it was a nuisance to till, for sure, but there was enough in there to give me good crops. I can't recommend going down the importing soil route — expensive and unnecessary. You can't beat a good bit of home-made compost.

FelixLeiter wrote:What is it you needed to plant in poor soil? I can't think of any crops which prefer poor soil..

Nasturtium and pot-mums (Calendula) that I grew as companium planting in order to invite slugs away. My neighbour has nasturtium growing happilly in her gravel drive and mine was sulking so I looked up in the DG Hessayon books I had for years. He says these plants prefer poor soil.

My nasturtium are now in my gravel drive where all-sorts of things grow because they just were-not happy and the Calendula are planted in a very sandy area where the sub-soil has been raised and mixed with top-soil.

The attached photos are of whats already happy in my gravel drive which is made up of local stone mixed with a type of sand then topped with another layer of the local stone that has been broken into smaller bits. In Pembrokeshire it's called scalpings. It drains well but doesn't seem to dry out.