help needed to improve soil

[new gardener 1052]

Hello,
I've started to dig a new flower bed in the front garden, started of ok but after 6 to 8 inches deep the soil is quite sandy and lots of rocks / stones rubble from when i guess the houses were new. i have dug it over a couple of times removing large stones. over all condition of the soil don't look that good to me

but what should i add to improve the quality?
manure / compost?

thanks in advance
Steve.

[Baldy]

What have you got to hand? What's cheapest? Really whatever you add is going to improve the soil if its the sort of builders rubble I'm used to seeing. Fresh manure might be too much for young plants - bags of cheap compost might be the way to go - home made compost if you've got that, What are you hoping to plant there?

[Martin H]

I would just focus on improving the soil in the planting hole. Dig a generous hole, then mix in some of the cheapest multipurpose compost you can get hold of, aiming for up to a 50-50 mix just in that spot. Maybe add a bit of bonemeal to the mix as slow release, then plant and fill in.

Once your flower bed is full up, mulch with homemade compost or anything organic you can get hold of cheaply.

As the plants establish their roots will find their way into the unimproved soil and probably be quite happy. The worms will eventually drag the mulch down and help release the nutrients and minerals that is locked into pretty much any soil.

[new gardener 1052]

i haven't really decided in the way of flower plants yet but i have bought a few step over apple trees to go around the edges of it. the trees won't be coming till late november so won't be planting anything till then

[Baldy]

If you're not planting till November then fresh manure is back on the table (so to speak) - Martin H makes a lot of sense.

[Snadger]

Any organic matter is going to be beneficial.

[Kirk]

Mentioned it elsewhere but Lidl have Peat Free Compost in 20 litre bags at 99p - well here at least.
Bought 5 for my soild soil in one area, sort of rock hard and you cannot break it up, could probably fire it into a pot. Their stuff was actually fairly good, expected worse as it said Peat Free, and from the smell it had manure in it, at least to a small extent.

With each bag being smallish they are easy to carry individually. More useful then many realise.

I marked out a suitable strip to dig and spread 3 bags over it and dug them in as best I could, came out fairly good. Intend to mark another strip and get another 3 or 5 bags. The 2 "spare" I am adding to another area which needs it as both compost and manure.

Thought is they seems a reasonable mix, useful size and not overly costly. Does depend on a Lidl being accessable.

[new gardener 1052]

i have a couple of large containers full of a mix of john innes 3 a farmyard manure from a couple of years ago, i had a cordon apple tree in one but it failed and a stella cherry in the other i decided to remove the trees from the garden but i still have the containers full of compost should i use that or refresh with new?

[DWSmith]

Chances are the soil has an alkaline pH if there is concrete construction rubble still in the soil. Some peat moss can correct that or some agricultural sulfur. If the pH isn't very alkaline it will probably correct itself with time after adding organic matter. If you've gotten out all the big bits then you may be okay. You may want to construct a screen with hardware cloth to sift out the smaller bits. 1/4" hardware cloth on a 2" x 4" frame will work.

I don't know if it's available to you but a scattering of cotton seed meal makes a very good, slow-release fertilizer while adding other good organic matter to the soil. (It is used as a feed supplement for livestock so you may find it at a farm & home type store.) As mentioned, rotted manure. If you have access to a heavily treed area and can get some leaves off the forest floor that would be excellent. Worm castings are good but can be costly.