weeds update

i woke up on saturday and thought sod it i'll just dig them all out. it took eight hours to do mainly because i had to put them in a barrow and wheel them through the house to get rid of them, i've put them were the footings for the garage is going so they won't grow back, i'm putting the fence posts up for the new fence this weekend and once they are set in drag all the top soil off then i'm going to fork in 500ltrs of peat to break up the clay, that will probably take another eight hours then alli have to worry about is the weeds coming in from the farmers side then i'll give it a good soakin roundup, hope the farmer won't mind. lee

 

Can you try to avoid peat? Peat extraction is really damaging the few remaining natural sites. You can get excellent substitutes.

 

I would go with Hornbeam - judging from the picture, your soil is pretty good for clay - and the one thing it doesn't need is the water retention of peat.

Organic matter - in the form of well rotted horse manure, spent mushroom compost, (unless your gonna try azaleas or rhodies) composted bark- or just simple grit would be better.

All your looking to do is prevent the clay particles clumping. Clay has all the nutrients you'll ever need - its why I love gardening on it.

 

There is only about 2 inchs of top soil which has a lot of roof slates hosue bricks and lumps of concret in it so the soil is not as good as it looks :( but my neighbour has 2 ponys and i am getting some manure off her to fork in as well.

 

That's right. Go for the pony manure and leave the peat where it belongs - in the peat bogs.

 

It`s a bit late for the peat bog as i have already bought it, the bloke from the nursery said to use it but i will not buy any more as, the pony manure is a lot better for the environment and it`s free. What type of grit shuold i use.. lee

 

Just ensure that it is well rotted, and not fresh - otherwise it will scorch your plants.

 

Heppy - all the books say horticultural grit (like the alpine grit you see at garden centres), which you can get from a builders merchant. But I have never met a builders merchant that sold it. I used roughly equal quantities of sharp sand and 10 mil gravel, which you can get from a builders merchant. Because you need a lot, bags from the garden centre are far too expensive. I also added lots of organics - mushroom compost, manure, my own compost and bales of general purpose compost, what ever I could get my hands on. I have been very pleased with the results.

 

The bags may be more expensive, but easier to transport through your house