Please help me resurrect my raised beds...

[Caro]

Hi all, I'm a lapsed amateur gardener hoping to do better this year...

I have two raised beds full of what, I am fairly sure, is poor soil. It's quite stony too. As it's not raining today, I think I'll start to tackle them. I'm in Scotland, I think the texture of the soil minus the stones would be fine, just undernourished.

I'm guessing my first job will be to sieve the soil as much as I can to take out stones. This hopefully, if I get really stuck in should help to reduce the level of the soil slightly so that there's room for improvement - literally!

The beds are waaaaaayyy at the bottom of the garden and I'm not a muscly gal and don't fancy trying to shift a ton of manure, even if I could source it. So my question is what can I add to the soil to improve it? And what is good for this time of year so that I can start to sow seeds (yes, I read the seed sowing thread and feel all fired up and envious!). Would chicken manure pellets help? Do B&Q sell small bags of manure? Anything else?

Please help me work out what to do. It's probably second nature to all you experienced gardeners (phew, almost said mature and insulted everyone , not that I'm a spring chicken) but to us novices it's a very mysterious world of organic chemistry.

Many thanks in advance for any advice.

[Mumbles]

B and Q sell average size bags of manure. Not sure what it's like but I'm hoping it's good as I was going to use some myself.
Not sure about fruit/veg but all the flowers in our garden looked almost dead last year, I sprinkled blood fish and bone from the poundshop over them watered them and then had flowers right up to christmas


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[Bill HH]

Chicken manure pellets are very good but pricey. you can get bags of concentrated manure (6X) also pricey, When your beds are empty put loads of cardboard and newspaper in the bottom, if you have any compost put that in aswell, leaves etc, this will encourage worms and hold moisture. If it were me I would be mixing some multipurpose compost in with your soil too to lighten and areorate it. Some blood fish and bone meal would not go amiss either. Have fun.

[roitelet]

Don't take out all the stones they provide drainage. I have very stoney ground and only take out the big ones and the ones that get caught in the rake. If you seive it all, which is very hard work, you could end up with soil that compacts when dry. As Bill says add as much organic matter as possible. It has taken time but from soil that had to be broken up with a hammer in summer I now have realy nice organic rich soil.

[Bill HH]

I had a bed that was unuseable because of stones, It was 5 metres x 9metres and i dug it all out to a depth of 1ft 6 inches, made a sieve out of weld mesh with about 12 mm squares. I had enough stones to cover a good long path and now I can grow carrots. roitelet is right about stones aiding drainage so I think I got it right at about 12mm. Big stones are a pain particularly with carrots. Oh and it was hard work but well worth it.

[Feral007]

As for getting things around in the garden, can you get one of those wheelie carts? They are squarer than wheelbarrows and you pull them as opposed to pushing them. I'm waiting till there's a bargain on them to get one myself. If you can move things around easier, from manure, soil, to tools then you'll get more done and enjoy it more

Homemade compost is the best. So really you've two jobs to do. One to start a compost heap, and 2ndly to get something quicker started, like chicken pellets or manure. Of course you could get chooks as well and make your own.... But seriously, I'd mix some chicken pellets with some straw, and add that in as well as taking out the big rocks.

At present I'm mulching the remains of my garden with, chook manure, shredded paper (from friends) and straw. It breaks down well, and adds lots as it goes. And then you can start some manure/comfrey/nettle teas to use as things grow.

[Johan]

Caro, There is only one way and that is to dig and sieve. Fortunately you have to do it ones. User a 10 - 12 mm hole size sieve. If you don't have one, buy plastic fencing material and make one.

If you look at my post "shadehouse repaired and better" under undercover operation, I give an article about improving my soil. The more compost, the better, I have a 1part soil (sandy) and 2 parts mushroom compost. It drains well, I can see the veggies grow fast, the soil stays wett longer and it is easier to work in. It was expensive but worth it.

You can use manure as well.

[Nicos]

Gosh Johan...sieving like that would just totally put me off!!!

I'd prefer to go with the rake and remove the larger stones...and then remove the smaller ones a bit at a time whilst weeding...but it will take time.

You do need some stones to help with drainage....as this really wet weather we are experiencing at the moment proves.

[Bigmallly]

Not sure what you mean by stones.........are they egg size, house brick size or pea size?.........I agree with Nic, rake it over first & see what you collect, if you are still unhappy just pick the remainder out. Small stones as already mentioned are good for drainage. Do you have a compost bin?........add as much organic material as you can even if it means burying it..........if you overwork yourself you may get disheartened and pack it in, do a little at a time & when you've had enough walk away till another day.

[Dorothy rouse]

Our plots were new 3 yeas ago, and were undug', I choose the one next to the path, and it turned out to be full of large stones, bricks, barbed wire, stones, and other rubbish 'buried ' by e builders, no way could this be sieved. First year was not cultivated, but next 2 years produced good potato crop, and a lot of weeds. All I could do was get out the large bricks and stuff and rack all the stones as much as possible to to the side, so many to make 'paths all round. The stones continue to come to the surface, so you can't get rid of them, but use them to your advantage.

I gave in the last few weeks covered the stone 'paths' with fabric and chippings to make it easier for me and am putting raised beds on this side of plot.

[Caro]

Interesting hints and tips, everyone, thank very much. I figure, if it ever stops raining, I'll do some light stone removal (mainly pebble sized and smaller), then browse B&Q to see what looks good between bagged manure, or chicken manure pellets, or other "roughage". And blood, fish & bone. I like the approach of do a little bit at a time, as it's easy to get swamped by it, and every little helps!

Thanks again

[Bill HH]

I am not convinced that stones aid drainage, small stuff like grit, sand and even gravel yes but bigger stuff is just a pain. How scientificaly can a round stone 1 inch across aid drainage? What it does do is deform your root crops. Time was when it was absolute gospel to put gravel or broken pots in your containers to aid drainage, now it seems no one bothers because its a home for slugs etc, also when you want to re-use the contents you have to pick it all out again. I also wonder why stones come to the surface? does not gravity dictate they should head downwards? My guess is that rain washes the soil off them and exposes them though I suppose the lunar planters amongst us would say the moon pulls them back up again. I say if you have big stones in quantity then sieve it, if its just small stuff live with it.

[Nicos]

I was under the impression that stones actually hold moisture and then release it slowly when the soil becomes dry.
In effect they actually soak up water and will slowly release it....not so sure about igneous rocks, but sedimentary ones certainly do!

Debate......

...perhaps that should be another thread????

[Dorothy rouse]

I'm wondering whether to use some of that Vermiculite to help fill my new raised beds that are going to need some 'filling' thought I'd use a mixture if Multi purpose compost and top soil, and maybe bags of well rotted manure, wud this be a good idea to help bulk it up a bit, have chucked some wood chippings down and the contents of the compost bins.

[Caro]

Oh great Nicos. I'll just pop down and work out if my stones are igneous or sedimentary Then I'll know what to do!