soils

[pansypotter]

what makes a rich/well drained soil ??

[Tel]

Plenty of garden compost, and grit to improve drainage.

[pansypotter]

i only have a small amount of soil from the leaves...would that do?
i need to add something to the front garden, it is a small raised bed that is quite dry,
i have a bag of topsoil and grit

[scrumpy]

what are you growing in it, what size is it, and how much do you want to spend?

[Geranium]

No, leafmould is only a soil conditioner, it has no nutrients to speak of in it. By all means mix it in with the bag of topsoil, as it'll help with 'opening up' the soil, but really, home-made compost is the best material to add. I wouldn't add much grit if the soil's already dry.

[pansypotter]

i had to raise the beds as the garden gets waterlogged when it rains, it is horseshoe shaped,
only one part needs attention, the side that gets the most sun! There's a rose which i'll be leaving in, the rest of the plants i shall be taking out of this area and would like to plant some dahlia rexona and anemone bi-colour amongst other bits, i suppose roughly it's about 8' by 4'
and finances are a bit tight.......i have no compost ready

[Geranium]

Have you got any chicken manure pellets? They'd be good to mix in the feed the soil. Blood, fish and bone sprinkled round and hoed in would also help feed the plants. You'd only need a small box of that, and it's not expensive.

I'd get compost going ASAP. Do your council sell any? Ours do at a low cost.

[pansypotter]

one bin emptied,one not ready to use and the other had the leafmould in, didn't get much done last year due to the fire! Our local amenity site doesn't do the compost, went there last friday hoping to acquire some, yet the next tip does but you have to produce id with address on......
whenever i've used bfb everything gets dug over, foxes i think, they even had the box out of the greenhouse!!!

[floydie]

Can you get any cheep top soil local? We can get it for £30-40 a tonn here worth looking around (check Ebay too ), you can then bulk it up with your leaf mold and grit .

[Geranium]

You could see if you can get a bag of dried manure from your local GC, and mix some of that in with the topsoil and leaf mould plus a little grit, then. That should make a good mixture and your plants would thank you for it!

[scrumpy]

Mar 9, 2011 22:24:22 GMT pansypotter said:

i had to raise the beds as the garden gets waterlogged when it rains, it is horseshoe shaped,
only one part needs attention, the side that gets the most sun! There's a rose which i'll be leaving in, the rest of the plants i shall be taking out of this area and would like to plant some dahlia rexona and anemone bi-colour amongst other bits, i suppose roughly it's about 8' by 4'
and finances are a bit tight.......i have no compost ready

how deep are the raised beds, and what's the soil like underneath and depth of this soil?