Quick soil advice

[MrLeek]

So the soil in my garden is rubbish - clay...gray....yuck! Build up a couple of raised beds and done a 2ft high dry stone wall at the bottom of the garden (bit OTT that, but it looks great). But what to fill it with?

I got hold of some home-made compost for free, so 80-85% of the beds are now full - dug in nicely with some manure from the garden centre and they're looking much healthier. But what's the best thing to top them up with? Cheap compost? Top soil? Something else?

2nd question (related). It's seed time and it's my first real go at gardening (last year I got given runner bean plants). What's the best seed compost to use? Good quality or cheap?

It helps that I can get 4 bags of John Innes seed compost and/or topsoil for £10 which I'm planning to do this weekend. So if that's a good deal then I'll take it, especially if it helps with the things I'm trying to solve!

Thanks for any advice! Hoping to start my peas, onions, toms (propagator) and leeks off this weekend. Bit early for my pots and runner beans?

[Matt94]

if you already have compost and manure in your beds i would add topsoil. as for your seed sowing any multi-purpose compost will do, different people buy different brands of compost, i personally buy b&q's and have done for many years whereas some will prefer wickes. yes you can sow peas, toms, onions and leeks. and your right its too early for pots and runner beans!

right i think ive answered them all.
all the best,
matt.

[SarrissUK]

If by pots you mean potatoes, it depends on where you live if it's too early. I got some to chuck in the ground this weekend, so that's what I will do

It's a gamble with frost, so I am going to give them a good soak after planting, and put a cloche over it all

[Two_Sheds]

I'm planting potatoes this week. The foliage needs to be protected from frosts, but by the time my foliage starts to show it will be well into April, and safe

Clay soil isn't rubbish: it's very nutritious and holds water. You just want to improve its drainage, which you're doing with added garden compost. You can plant into what you've got ~ don't go thinking you can't plant anything unless you have THE PERFECT mix of this and THE PERFECT balance of that

[Capsid]

What 2 sheds said. I have clay soil and get very good results. It's only problem is that it is hard to work, in the winter it is heavy and waterlogged and in the summer it dries out to concrete.

[MrLeek]

Thanks for the responses everyone. I know that clay soil has it perks (all soil does in fact) but we still make the effort to get our soil the best we can. I need to add some more soil to my beds to fill them up - but it sounds like anything cheap will do.

There's compost and seed compost in Lidi - pound for 20 litres basically. Is that too cheap? The expensive stuff is nudging double that price...but since I'm a newbie at this I'm not sure if I need that extra help.

[Sanjo]

Cheap doesn't necessarily mean poor. As your clay soil will already have a fair amount of nutrient in it and you only want to "lighten" it, I'd go for it. It only works out at £3 for 60 litres, unless my arithmetic is wrong!! Just think of it as a soil improver rather than a compost. I bet it's fine though. I am using J Arthur Bowers and as usual it's full of bits of twig

[MrLeek]

In the end I went a bit pricey for seed compost (I need all the help I can get!!) and got hold of some cheap compost plus a couple of bags of top soil. The soil is really breaking up now - the lumps of clay are much easier to handle and it looks good....well, to my newbie eye anyway!

Just set off some peas, sprouts and leeks off in some cheap root trainers and a seed tray. Fingers crossed something will happen!

[Two_Sheds]

In the end I went a bit pricey for seed compost

Don't be disappointed with yourself if it doesn't work. I can't get on with proper seed compost: I always just use MPC (New Horizon peat free) and pick the lumps out

[Two_Sheds]

The soil is really breaking up now - the lumps of clay are much easier to handle

Take note of Zazen's advice re clay soil, she has it too.

eg, you can add coffee grounds as a mulch, and let the worms dig it in for you. I have sticky clay at home, but sandy soil on the lotty.

[di]

We used to have three plots (at the time there were no waiting lists and the redundant plots were just going to weed each year),anyway, when we split up I knew there was no way I could carry on with three, the one I gave up was the sandy soil one. Two reasons, biggest was that the other two are right by friends with kiddies the same age, but also, after several years of improving the structure I actually prefer the clay. Less watering. Once you get your fine tilth for sowing seeds, they don't get washed away into a curly line when you water them. When you turn the soil, it turns and doesn't just fall apart leaving weed roots at the bottom.
Yes, it probably takes a little more effort to prepare, but I prefer it.

Cardboard in the winter covered with FYM worked really well on a bed a couple of years ago, the soil is still great. (reading up on the mulching thread, I'm going to be doing this a lot more this year,just with my own compost).

I also add a lot of coffee grounds but think the best for me so far is bonfire ash. It's reserved mainly for my onion beds, but you really can tell where I've added it.

Oh also, last Autumn I totally covered a bed with gathered leaves, seems to have helped also.

[di]

Oh, one last thing, two years ago I got a first prize for my carrots...so don't believe anyone that says you can't grow carrots in clay

[Kaiya]

I have clay in the garden and lottie (they are 500 yards apart) - the previous lottie inhabitant improved the soil beautifully - I'm very lucky. The garden is a new build, previously allotments apparently, but obviously compressed. It looked like early learning centre clay when we lifted the weed membrane the builders had put down! We used a tiller (not a rotovator) to break it up, and apart from the occasional rotting bulb, its great. I grew courgettes, peas and beans in it last year.

I'm very enthusiastic about my clay though I don't dig it - I'd perhaps be less enthusiastic if I did!

[di]

The one thing I miss about the sandy plot...it was fine for the kiddies to make mud pies in. Though they have tremendous fun doing the same in the clay...probably more so because it sticks together...if I don't get round to sorting the hole quick smart, it's a proper bu&&ar!