stones in soil

[lotthedrinkeroftea]

Right so I'm running an a children's play garden that's just started up.
We have a metal fence along one side which surprise! Surprise! turned out to be full of rubble. My first instint is to remove it.

However there's a lovely volunteer lady who comes who thinks we shouldn't because apparently "stones will cool the soil and keep it moist".

I've no idea what she's on about and I'm pretty sure that even if this where the case we can't plant anyting deeper than 30 cms so it may well have gone too far into the "cool"

Does anyone knwo what she's means by this? She's not very into the scientific basis for things but I'd like to knwo what she's on about!

[Jeanied]

I always place stones over the roots of my clematis. Plants can't grow into stones but they quite like to grow under them. Specially on hot days. It is called giving them a 'cool root run'. It sounds like your volunteer lady knows what she is talking about. What do you want to grow?

[taff]

30cm deep is plenty for most things.

[lotthedrinkeroftea]

Thanks guys

After investigation, it's more like 15cm and then a compacted layer of victorian rubble and clay. better than i thought. It's a 16metre fence that we're wanting to grow soft fruit againest mostly.

She changed her mind this week which was a relief. She wasn't talking about putting rocks over the soil as mulch but not removing any stones to improve drainage. A ott given that we won'tt be able to water more than once a week and the soil is dry as a bone!