Stones in my veg patches

beckstrous

Hi All,

This is my second proper year of veg growing, and my first with proper veg patches - it was all in containers before so I have never done anything in the ground. But we moved last year to a house with four veg plots already. I understand that they were dug about a year ago and the person who did them put manure in. I thought it would be a good idea to prep them with a little compost and dig that in - do you think this would be a good idea?

When we arrived they were really overgrown and it took ages to clear them, so I have dug them over quite a few times. But every time I leave the earth to settle a few weeks later there are lots of stones coming to the surface and a few weeds. I hoe off the weeds but what (if anything) should I be doing with the stones?

Thanks for any advice. :-)

4li5on

Riddle the soil?

Some amount of stones are needed for drainage, but if it's an excessive amount (like we have in ours!) just work on one area at a time riddling half a spade full at a time. Now probably isn't the right time to do it as the soil is so wet, but once it dries a bit, you'll be left with lovely fine soil.

Digging in some compost is a good idea too!

Optimisticpair

Agree. When you are digging you are bringing weed seeds and stones to the surface. It's a bit wet to dig right now, standing on the veg plot will compact the soil.

If you do a traditional dig system you usually you dig in autumn and leave it until spring to create a fine surface. Frost breaks the clods up for you. You break up what's left with a rake in spring and produce a bed ready to rake to a fine surface tilth. I rake in a general fertiliser a fortnight before sowing. After that I keep off the beds and lay a mulch of home made compost on top for the worms to play with.

Stones are a pain if you want to grow nice straight carrots or parsnips. I'm creating new beds as soon as it's dry enough so I'll be using a riddled soil and compost mix for the top as deep as I can get it before I need to start sowing.