The all new good, bad and ugly of growing your own in 2020

DiggerUK

Is anyone else finding large cracks in the veg and flower patches?

It seems the heavy rains have compacted our soil and in this dry period the soil has quite bad cracks going down a spade depth. We are clay soils.

We've had to go around with the small bedding forks and break it through..._

Suffolk_lass

I know clay is supposed to be the richest, most fertile soil but oh boy, is it a test to work with so you have my sympathy DiggerUK. I remember using a pick-axe one year at our old house to plant beans. Have you got and organic matter to mix in with it, to help open the structure of the clay? Any of grit, sand (horticultural, not builders), compost, well-rotted manure, leaf-mould or even shredded paper with something like grass-cuttings would help.

Suffolk_lass

We finally got the greenhouse finished and I have spent the last two days frantically cleaning old seed trays and filling them. Our wonderful local nursery took my order for compost over the phone and delivered it yesterday too - so I have more medium to plant in and soil improvers for my vegetable beds and fruit strip beds.

Meanwhile DH has been building me some replacement compost bins out of old fence panels and some free pallets we collected from a building site before lockdown. We have a shortage of screws long enough so it is taking a while but I am hopeful that I will be able to start moving the contents of the old bins this afternoon.

I'm off to do some shredding before that as I cleared back some blackthorn so I can get out on to the field at the back to maintain the hedge and clear out some of the periwinkle, nettles and thistles that have taken up residence and are attempting to invade my garden!

DiggerUK

Suffolk_lass, sod your sympathy, get your backside round here with that pickaxe and start swinging. I've been out working on a new bed today. I'm creamed. 

Each year we get over two cubic metres of compost from the garden.....and we have two horses. The other thing we are always collecting are the ballast bags full of sharp sand that road crews tend to leave behind when they have finished working. (I'm just removing a hazard to people traveling the highways.....honest officer) 😉.

The other trick that works a treat on clay is plasterboard. It's 98% gypsum, 2% paper and foaming agent, neither acid or alkaline and above all else, it's free.

It took me a while to find out what the "foaming agent" is.......any decent brickie can tell you..._  

Charly27

Didn’t know that about plasterboard DiggerUK. My allotment is clay and has a tendency to crack in the heat and stick to the spade when it’s wet. But over the years, digging in horse muck (best present ever from DH when I had some delivered) and home made compost has helped. It is blooming hard work though. I dug out my strawberry bed, saving around 20 runners to add to those from last year and got the onion sets in yesterday. Today I’ve been seed sowing at home. My back needed a break and I figured nobody needs to me to do damage to myself and put a burden on NHS at the moment. Baby steps. 

baggins11

We have heavy clay here and last year I started no dig.  Put loads of leaf mould, manure, green waste compost, cardboard etc and got really good crops in year one.  I am really pleased this year as the worms have been doing the work for me and the clay is starting to incorporate into the bed and I have got a lovely soil developing.   I am a big fan of no dig as I have around 25 beds and a back that doesn't tolerate too much digging.

I planted up 3 beds of onion/shallot sets today and planted some strawberry runners I had in pots.  Yet more weeding today as I got lazy last summer/autumn so I will pay for it this year with weeds that could have been prevented.  Yesterday I planted 2 beds of potatoes and sowed a bed of carrots.

DiggerUK

I found most information on gypsum  on the agricultural industry forums, interesting stuff. It isn't urged as an every year thing to do, recommended time scales varied from 3 to 5 year cycles.

There are proposals to ban plasterboard from skips and landfill, because about a quarter of plasterboard ends up as waste. Farmers need licences to put crushed plasterboard on their land, I think it is to stop DelBoy farmers giving a cheap dumping ground for the waste.

I'm using it on a four year cycle starting with potatoes, lime the year after, and nothing until potatoes return. It's a work in progress, the committee has still to finalise its final report on the field research 👨🏼‍🔬🧑‍🔬 and I am sworn to secrecy till then.._

Suffolk_lass

DiggerUK said:

Suffolk_lass, sod your sympathy, get your backside round here with that pickaxe and start swinging. I've been out working on a new bed today. I'm creamed. 

Each year we get over two cubic metres of compost from the garden.....and we have two horses. The other thing we are always collecting are the ballast bags full of sharp sand that road crews tend to leave behind when they have finished working. (I'm just removing a hazard to people traveling the highways.....honest officer) 😉.

The other trick that works a treat on clay is plasterboard. It's 98% gypsum, 2% paper and foaming agent, neither acid or alkaline and above all else, it's free.

It took me a while to find out what the "foaming agent" is.......any decent brickie can tell you..._  

piddle?

DiggerUK

Suffolk_lass said:

DiggerUK said:

Suffolk_lass, sod your sympathy, get your backside round here with that pickaxe and start swinging. I've been out working on a new bed today. I'm creamed. 

Each year we get over two cubic metres of compost from the garden.....and we have two horses. The other thing we are always collecting are the ballast bags full of sharp sand that road crews tend to leave behind when they have finished working. (I'm just removing a hazard to people traveling the highways.....honest officer) 😉.

The other trick that works a treat on clay is plasterboard. It's 98% gypsum, 2% paper and foaming agent, neither acid or alkaline and above all else, it's free.

It took me a while to find out what the "foaming agent" is.......any decent brickie can tell you..._  

piddle?

Of course, it also increases the nitrate in the soil..._

Kantankrus_Mare

Another one here with clay soil. I feel your pain. Most of our plot has gradually been turned over to raised beds but the bit that hasnt is hard work to get usable. Got a new bed of strawberries planted and my plot is almost weed free with all this extra time on my hands. Just hoping we dont get whats happening in France! I would be so gutted if I couldnt get to my plot. All that hard work gone to waste. 
Now just waiting for plants to grow and the risk of frost to be gone s we can get stuff out.