Advice needed .

[Ivanhoe]

I have recently had a good clear up in my back garden .
Now i have a area of around 20ft x 6ft next to a fence that is not in use i had a quick dig about in this area and apart from the obvious weeds that need clearing and it been a clay soil can anyone give me any advice on how to prepare it to use as a small veg plot and what should i be looking to plant next year .

[Nicos]

Ooo.... nice one!
is it N/S/ E / W facing?

that will make a difference as to what you will plant and therefore your soil prep.

[Ivanhoe]

The plot is east facing

[ameno]

East isn't ideal, but it could be worse.
How far north are you? If you live in the south, you could probably still grow pretty much any veg in an east-facing plot, although you may well get lower yields of some types than you would in a south or west-facing one. If you live further north, though, then you will probably want to give the more tender crops a miss.

[greenishfing]

One of the things I would definitely try to grow would be salad crops: various lettuce, rocket and radish. They don't take long to grow and they are so different from the bought varieties. I'll never forget one of my sisters asking if I'd bring some over when she was making a buffet and was short. When she saw the fresh side by side with a bowl of an upmarket supermarket lettuce her face said it all. It even convinced her to grow some of her own the following year.

[burnie]

Tradition was to plant potatoes the first year to help break up the ground, adding plenty of organic material like compost or manure will help no end. The hard way is to double dig, but these days a lot of folk just heap the organic stuff on top and let the winter and the worms do the work.

[Jungle Jane]

In my east facing border I get a few good hours of sun & about 5ft in front of the fence I can grow tomatoes in the raised bed (I tried a tomato right next to the fence once but it had about two tomatoes on the plant,it wasn"™t a success at all,too much shade) the dwarf apple tree is about three ft from the fence,a lot will do well,garlic,onions,runner beans,brassicas,squash can be planted to trail eastward,try everything you like to eat. I"™ve got a few broccoli plants in that area now & dahlias close to the fence that come up every year,remember in the summer it"™s a lot drier,the plants will have some morning sun good luck!

[Ivanhoe]

I live in South Yorkshire regarding organic matter i have a ready supply of used rabbit bedding and the usual compost and manure readily available to me .
My Grandson keeps two rabbits on our back garden and they are cleaned out weekly could this be used ?

[burnie]

Old manure is better, when my kids were little the rabbit and guinea pig bedding/waste went into the compost heap, good stuff too. Fresh waste is often buried and then grow runner beans on top. For now heap all the waste and compost on the area and then in the spring we'll see if it needs digging in or not, you could put some old cardboard or newspaper down first if you have some, then put the good stuff on top of it.

[Ivanhoe]

I have had a scrounge round and have got a good bit of cardboard together .
We are also decorating and have a bin bag full of wall paper off cuts left could these be used ?
I have never used cardboard to improve soil in my garden before this may sound like stupid question but what is the best way to use it to get the best out of it ? .

[rary]

Wallpaper is generally not something I would use but that is more a personal choice rather than any other reason, as for the cardboard, if I have anything in the compost bins I spread it over the ground then cover it with as thick a covering of cardboard as I can get, depending on where you are you might need to wet each layer as you cover the ground, something I don't need to do, finish off by covering the cardboard with a layer of soil or compost if you have old compost that would be fine, in the past I have used course sand to cover the cardboard, as for what to plant, try anything you want as you will never know what will grow till you try it.

[Mark_Riga]

I wouldn't use wallpaper unless you know it is 100% paper and not plastic coated at all and even then I'd give it a miss if it has any fungicides in.

As to what to plant, if it is very weedy, something that has big leaves: potatoes/courgettes/squash... otherwise anything you like eating.

[Plot70]

I dug out about a cubic meter of couch grass roots starting at about this time last year.
I rotted them under a cap made of hot rotting horse manure with an impressive crop of squashes grown in a thin layer of Derbyshire clay soil over the top of it. The squashes just squashed down onto it as the nutrients were released from the couch grass roots and manure
The stuff in the clay built raised bed looks like peat now and is going on as soil improver with the squashes going in the clay that has been under this bed where nutrients have been washed down into it by the rain.
Don't use plastic coated wallpaper. If you use old carpet get it up before it starts braking up as it leaves loads of plastic waste in the ground.
I find that cardboard attracts slugs and requires some effort to control them.

[Ivanhoe]

It looks like i have got some right pain on with this plot as i have dug down one spade depth and the ground is made up of limestone from golf ball to tennis ball size stuck together in a clay and a limestone dust type off mixture .
This is very hard to dig and comes out large clumps when you try to dig with either a spade or fork .
Will the same advice about improving the soil still work ?

[ameno]

It looks like i have got some right pain on with this plot as i have dug down one spade depth and the ground is made up of limestone from golf ball to tennis ball size stuck together in a clay and a limestone dust type off mixture .
This is very hard to dig and comes out large clumps when you try to dig with either a spade or fork .
Will the same advice about improving the soil still work ?

Given the state of your subsoil, improving, and indeed increasing, your topsoil is you best bet.
Leave the subsoil be. Don't try to dig it or remove the stones. You'll be there forever and still make no significant progress, and will only end up mixing stones in with the topsoil.
A raised bed might be the best bet for you, in order to increase the depth of the topsoil. And at the very least, you want to add as much bulk to the topsoil as you can. Plenty of manure or compost, naturally, but if you can get hold of some more topsoil for free (people often give it away on places like Facebook Marketplace, waste from digging out a patio or some such) then that would be very helpful, too.