QUICK FIX

Is there a quick way of improving really poor soil ? can I just dig holes and shovel binned food/tea leaves etc, straight in ?

 

I would think if you bury edible food scraps in your soil,you will end up with a very well fed rodent population. Why do you say your soil is 'poor'?

 

Hello ming,


The soil has to be done right and there is no alternative to hard work-tilling etc. Everything else you spend on it-time thought money is wasted otherwise.


There is something called soiless gardening-it involves loads of paper, straw etc ( might be worth googling) but the effort and expense of that makes digging seem a positive yoga session.

 

ok ty. I live 1000ft up on the side of a hill, the neighbours dont grow much and say all the goodness is washed away downhill, so the soil is poor. I have managed to grow some wee odds & ends of flowers out the front, by making a sort of hollow, filling with compost, and banking nice stones and boulders around the downhill side (LOL hard to explain), that method has kept some things alive for 2 summers. before, everything died the 2nd year.
The only things that grow well are lemon balm & aquilegia, they are spreading and healthy. I made a bed of compost at the lowest point near the back door and put mint in there, its ok so far....but I really really want to grow our own veg. I have potatoes in old tyres but wopuld prefer them in a proper veg patch, this is why I want to improve the soil, for next years veg. mary

 

Havwe you considered making some raised beds with sleeper type edging? That way, you can fill the inside with great compost/manure/soil for fabulous veggies. You could use tyres filled with soil/stones/rubble as a wall for the beds - and grow something like nasturtiums in them too!

Without terracing your garden, I don't know of another method to stop the goodness running away - but I do know that well rotted manure will do a lot more good dug into holes than vegie scraps.

 

Making beds sounds feasible yes if I can whine at a son to do the heavy work....the husband would scream & faint at the thought of manure...He comes from Edinburgh and they're all far too posh for manure !! LOL

 

Maybe you could use a green manure each and every yr-its a lot lighter then sacks of manure.

 

The quick way, but not the least cost, is to dig in peat, or similar, to retain moisture. This doesn't supply any nutrient, so you also need to use a fertilizer such as Growmore.

 

Hi ming. I have to agree with JarBax, seems to me that raised beds are far and away your best option. Put them in place, dig over what`s there already, and fill with some decent `stuff`. Cheers...freddy.

 

If your land is steep then the only way is to terrace. I'm sure your local recyling yard will have loads of newspapers you can pinch instead of them going for landfill. Layer the newspaper with soil in your beds, that should help with moisture retention. If you've got sheep close by, collect some sheep poo and soak it in a water butt for a while then pour the lot on the beds. Make sure you have a large compost heap on the go, bigger the better. All your green waste can go into it along with paper and cardboard. Any tough weeds, drown them first in a bucket of water for a few weeks then add to compost heap. As already said, raised beds even better.

 

Plenty of good advice here. The only thing to add is that if you try and take a short cut by putting unrotted material into the ground, it might make matters worse. The process of decomposition is likely to take what little nitrogen you have out of the soil.