Digging

[zazen999]

He's probably right: clay soil is very nutritious.

Keep reading: you may discover that you neither need to dig, nor add horse manure.

Take it from me, you don't need to dig clay, just mulch mulch mulch, grow in pots and use a bulb planter to plant out. Then mulch around the plant after watering in. Then don't water again until the ground starts cracking.

[Stew_L]

Take it from me, you don't need to dig clay, just mulch mulch mulch, grow in pots and use a bulb planter to plant out. Then mulch around the plant after watering in. Then don't water again until the ground starts cracking.

Bulb planter - that's a great idea!

[Feral007]

Trouble is that if you follow your grandfathers old habits and he wasn't growing much there, or it wasn't doing really well, then you won't be able to show him a good result at the end.

I'd probably be inclined to do a little research and then work out what will be most useful to you and the plants you want to grow, and get started with the easiest. Work out what will suit the growing conditions as they are, and then do what you need to, to get them going first. It's always so much easier to show how things are going well, if you have something large and green and producing something to eat

I'm having a shocking year (dry as opposed to your wet, over there) but the chard and the pumpkins are making me look good anyway.
I would say have a look at the no dig (I don't have edges on mine so you don't need to buy/make anything).
Put a few things in, and mulch with hay really thickly and then as that rots down into the soil, you are already getting on. Either put all your weeds on top of the soil (no seed heads) or bag them in hession and make a weed tea, and use that on the garden.
Look at making everything you take out of the garden into something that goes back in.

I know what you mean about compost - by the time the wildlife has finished with it here, there's nothing left to rot down, but I put all garden waste onto the garden. And I'm using comfrey and manure to make teas and mulches. No cost - or very little. You do need to know where your manure/hay comes from tho.

There's a link somewhere to that thread which you might need to know. As the allotments over there have rules on such things.

Here is one of the topics discussing manure and hay http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...2-a_67049.html
Not to scare you off, just to give you a heads up on thinking about what you put on the garden first.

Best of luck - just remember about growing big green things (your grandfather will be secretly saying how much you take after him to everyone else, when that happens)

[Bigmallly]

Welcome to the vine JK, I am not going to add anything to the abundance of advice already given. Well maybe just a little thing. When your Grandad is there, follow his lead..........when he's not, just do your own thing & enjoy it...........