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What sort of soil have you got ?

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Mrs Ava:
My old patch is wonderful and deep, altho mega stoney, some as big as boulders!  But this patch was used up until quite recently...well, 18 months ago, but my new patch is a different story.  Tis only 1 plot away, and yet the soil couldn't be more different.  In places there is almost no topsoil, just thick wet sticky orange clay.  In others it is sandy, almost silty in texture and dry.  In some patches the grass is so thick I am having trouble getting my spade into the ground, and in others it is patchy and thin.  Every step along is different, but one thing remains the same, stones!  Trillions of them!!

Mimi:
You have my sympathies Emma.  Im in exactly the same situation.  My plot has never been used as an allotment before and prior to the allotment being sited there it was a builders dumping ground :o ::) :o So you can imagine the rubbish dumped there. I am very very slowly making progress but there is a very long way to go.  Want to share a bottle of Radox cos if your back is anything like mine you will need it ;)

Bionic Wellies:
Old Basing (Hants).

I used to have two half allotments (on the same site but separated by 100yds).  Had to dig one half with a pickaxe because nothing else would do it justice (maybe a road drill).  When a clod of brown stuff had been extracted it was rock hard - even after serious rain!  Great for growing cabbage, beans - useless for any root crop!

Second half made of dust - easy to dig and pull weeds from.  But if the wind gets up you get sand blasted and risk choking to death in the dust cloud. Really good for root crops but can't seem to grow cabbage very well - look more like single sprouts in a row.

derbex:
Not as much as I should have! It seems the previous owners of my plot cleared it by taking off the top layer of soil and bunging it over the fence. I was going to reclaim some of it but someone has taken the plot now. Still, cloud, silver lining -at least he'll keep the bunnies a bit further back.

In type I guess it's a silty clay about 1 spit deep and pretty sticky, quite a lot of worms though. You can do the ball and sausage, not sure about the ring though. Quite a few stones too. The Ball and Sausage -a them pub opening near you :)

I also have some veg. beds at the house -thats more your heavy standard clay.

Jeremy

gilgamesh:
Home - light sandy loam. Former market garden.

Ma-in-law's garden - formerly lawn, again light loam. Raises the finest crop of slugs & snails in all civilization (aided by the privet hedges all round it.)

"Allotment" - deep, black, fertile soil, has been used as a veg garden for years, but let go in recent times as the old chap (yes, even older than I) who used to have it grew less able to cope. I now share this with my brother-in-law, who retired last year.

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