New garden; crap soil

[Joe]

I have a garden that is on an old brown field site. It is nearly devoid of any form of life. I haven't seen a single worm. I have a compost bin and that has attracted a colony of ants but apart from that it is lifeless. There are some weeds; a thistle and others I haven't yet identified. I have built a couple of raised beds and planted some cabbages and lettuces in the muck that I have on site.

What can I do to improve the soil? There used to be terraced housing on the site which has since had a layer of sand put down. This has been covered with membrane, to keep down weeds, and about 8 inches of poor quality soil over that.

Will the veg be any good, or should I just compost it? I seem to recall that I read somewhere that potatoes should be planted to draw toxins out of poor soil.

I just want to bring this garden to life, and preferably with something edible. Any suggestions?

[Hazel at the Hill]

Mother nature is a wonderful thing, Joe - or, you can't keep nature at bay - so take heart!

I think that manure is your friend here - get hold of as much as poss and put it in and on your beds. There will be an ecosystem of bacteria/microscopic stuff/worms etc there, but it will need encouraging!

Until your soil is of good heart, you will get variable results with any sowings - veg or flowers, but plug away at it, and you'll get there.

BTW, I'd suggest first crops of runner beans next year (which love all the muck you will be sticking in), and squash/cougette(ditto).

[Hazel at the Hill]

And you can buy worms from wriggly wrigglers, if you want, but I'd bring in loads of muck and I think that the worms will find it!

[rustylady]

How long have you been there Joe? It sounds a very new garden. As Hazel says, there will be life there keep plugging away and it will return. As well as raised beds, you can grow veg in large pots using multipurpose compost. When the crops are finished, put the used compost on the beds. Take some pictures- sort of before and after ones - these should encourage you, and we'd love to see them if you can post them on here. Good luck with it.

[rana]

Just a thought but if very little is growing then it needs nutrients. Having thrown manure at the soil try growing clovers (great for bees) then peas or beans or even lupins. These are nitrogen fixers and will improve the soil. Also have a go with green manures - different species for different times of the year - digging in the crop each time. Slowly but surely the dirt will develop the ecosystem of bacteria, fungi etc. and the structure necessary for good soil.

[Two_Sheds]

If there are weeds, then there are nutrients in the soil. Over time you can improve the soil by adding as much garden compost as poss (you'll need more than one bin, probably 3). Scrounge as much waste as possible, from market stalls, neighbours etc.

And if you compost heap has ants, it's too dry.

[WeeGarden]

Is it a new build garden?

If so, I had the same thing and if you're thinking that you're going to be there for a while, it's worth spending some improving the soil a bit. We found out what cr*p there was under our garden when we tried to dig a hole for a tree - couldn't go for more than half a spit depth before we kept coming across broken bricks, concrete lumps, rubble, etc.. and what was on top was a heavy clay soil with useless subsoil mixed in.

We did a rough dig over with the spade and got rid of the debris and subsoil lumps, then rotavated in sand and a ton of compost to help with drainage/nutrients. You're right when you say it's devoid of wildlife... only came across a few worms in the whole of the garden, but now, we're over run with slugs and there are beetles, earwigs, centipedes and worms in my raised bed veggie patch - I don't know where they came from, so don't worry, wildlife will find you.

It's a lot of hard work - so you might want to just concentrate on the areas where you are going to grow fussier plants.

[Joe]

Thanks to all for advice so far. It is a new build and I've been here a month. Will post some photos later. I'm on the lookout for manure but I want to try and be fully organic and I'm wary that some things I obtain might compromise that. I'm also trying to do it with permaculture in mind. My other half wants grass and flowers. I want veg and wildlife, although we both want the grass cutting down to a minimum. The guinea pigs are rather slacking with chores at the moment.

Got about 30 square metres of lawn at the moment. Some of it came out of a skip and some was from B&Q at £1 a roll. Both lots have taken very well.

Is there danger of toxins in the soil?

[WeeGarden]

There shouldn't be a danger of contamination in the soil if the previous site was a house.

[Joe]

Some photos of the garden

As promised earlier, some photos of the garden.