Dead soil - will this work?

[cocopops]

Having tried in vain for three years to grow anything in my garden (which is my plot), I realise that my soil really does not have any organic matter in it.  Today my hubby has spread a 10cm layer of well rotted horse manure (with lovely lesser spotted worms)along with the contents of our chicken and rabbit houses.  There is lots of well rotted poo and straw in various levels of decay.  The area covered is 2m x 6m.

Both of us suffer with bad backs, and as he is joiner he cannot afford to try and dig it in manually for fear of his 'going'.  The soil is very very hard and takes an age to dig.  He borrowed a neighbours rotivator but the blades are not that big and all he did was end up with a dig mash of manure.

Now do we:
- Leave it uncovered for a while then plant (how long)?
- As above but cover in plastic (again how long)?
- Try to rotivate again in a few weeks when it is a bit drier?
- Something else?

I would ideally like to plant veggies but would it be better to put in flowers this year and prepare another bed for them next year?

[cocopops]

[Robert_Brenchley]

A lot of things will do OK, but I'd be inclined to get them started in pots. Over the next few months, the worms will deal with the manure.

[1066]

I'd also sow stuff in pots ready to plant out later. If you can get it for a reasonable price you could cover it and create planting holes. I did this with huge areas of my plot last year and the clay soil is now much more workable. will still take much more organic matter but its definitely improved.  :)

[manicscousers]

I'd cover some bits and plant through with courgettes, squash, etc  :)

[dtw]

Is it a new build house?
As builders nowadays just leave rubble in the garden and cover it with a couple of inches of topsoil.
My garden is rock hard and has lots of gravel in it. Impossible to dig.
A rotovator wouldn't touch it.

You may need to dig it over somehow and incorporate the manure.

[tonybloke]

have a look here http://www.charlesdowding.co.uk/forum for ideas. ;)

[Tee Gee]

You could consider the 'no dig' method of cultivation see here; http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Data/Allotments/Cultivation.htm

Your Husband is a joiner so perhaps he could put a timber border (semi raised bed)around your plot and you keep filling it with compost each year then eventually you will have a very good growing area.

[lincsyokel2]

One of the dirtier tricks builders on new sites do is to sell the topsoil off the entire site (at £30/tonne), including your garden, and replace it with subsoil (bought in at £10/tonne), making a profit of £20 a tonne.

If you work on one tonne per 2 square yards, you can see the money that can be made.

And you are left with soil with nothing in it, no worms, no nutrients, nothing. Sounds like this is what they have done ?

[grannyjanny]

Do they do things like that in France? Charles Dowding is very helpful. I've emailed him & he always replies. OH trenched & manured our plot last year so I wanted him to adopt the no dig method. He was against it but our eldest daughter has just got a plot & will need help setting hers up as her OH works away a lot. Surprisingly my OH is thinking no dig could be the way to go ;D ;D ;D.

[aj]

No dig works better if the beds are manured in the autumn as the worms take the organic down during the winter.

Cocopops - what I would do is to cover the beds in cardboard [free from all good supermarkets] or newspapers [as thick as you can] and put a little more manure over the top to cover it/weigh it down. Then plant straight through it this year. I did this several times on my lottie - the topsoil had been taken by the plots across the road when they were standing empty and there was very little no organic in it at all. As you harvest, you will also help to mix the organic in; and put any manure that you can get on as a mulch over next winter. Use a bulb planter to get a good depth into the soil in about a month - it should have softened up somewhat presuming we have good spring rains. You can also pop a handful of organic in the bottom of the hole as you plant it up.

[Digeroo]

Potatoes are very good at breaking up hard soil as are courgettes and pumpkins.  
perhaps you could grow some things in 'pots'.  Just dig holes and fill with manure and pop a courgette, a couple of potatoes or some beans on top.  The roots will begin to spread into the soil and break it up.  

Some of my allotment was rock soil when I took it over and I was amazed how much the plants have broken up the soil.  Some of the guys used pick axes to break  up their allotments, but I found I could not even pick up a pick axe once let alone use it.

I am not sure that the worms in the manure are the ones that live in soil.  

Perhaps the neighbours can give you some pointers at how to deal with the local soil.

[Robert_Brenchley]

The right sort of worm will soon find your manure, and they breed like flies.

[artichoke]

This worked for me (layers of cardboard covered by layers of whatever you can find in the way of compost, manure etc).

I made two 7 metre by 1.5 metre beds like this on top of rough grassland, three years ago, and have been getting good crops ever since.

The downside is the effort involved in manhandling sacks of everything, and the fact that you can never make the bed very deep the first year, unless you have unlimited amounts of materials, strength and/or money. Persistent weeds like couchgrass and bindweed do eventually make their way through the cardboard and other layers, but are easier to get rid of.

[nilly71]

I would do the same as the above with cardboard and manure but soak it with water and cover with black plastic.

If you can find something simular to this http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/5-AUGER-DRILL-FENCE-GATE-POST-HOLE-DIGGER-BORER_W0QQitemZ400107097494QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Home_Garden_Garden_Structures_Fencing_CV?hash=item5d283dcd96 then they are a great help, I paid £15 from a local shop. I use mine and bore holes every 18" filled with compost and plant straight in, it's worked great. You just bore as deep as you want.
If you done this first filled with kitchen waste then the cardboard method over the top, it would be even better. The worms would do the work between holes for you.

Neil

[1066]

Neil's idea has reminded me that I bought a bulb planter to do the same thing, but not as deep though. One of the most useful things I've ever bought  :)

[nilly71]

There brill for planting potatoes too ;)

Neil