Gardening in England

Author

Soil

Dave

2006-08-06, 9:25 am

Until recently I had a hedge running the full length of the garden and we
have never been able to do much with the border that adjoined it as it was
always rock hard.

The hedge had to be replaced recently (unfortunately) with a fence as
cutting the hedge was getting to much for me ( retired )

I now want to dig over the border but cannot make much progress on the soil.

I have heard you can hire a cultivator ( think that's what was said)

Would this work on very hard soil and go down deep enough to break up the
soil for shrubs to be planted.?

Or id there a better alternative

Thank you in advance

bapeyton@gmail.com

2006-08-06, 8:25 pm

Try adding sand from stream or wash with fine peables in it and {coke
which is fully burnt chuncks of wood} to the soil. This might softn it
up, but might make the soil more alkine.

Nick Byford

2006-08-07, 9:25 am

Coke is not actually burnt wood - that's charcoal. Coke is formed from coal
and is not advisable to put on the soil.

Putting mulches of any form on top of the soil generally take a fair while
to make any difference to the quality of that underneath.

My wife always likes to wet the soil before attacking it with a fork, she
says the wetting helping to free it up. We have had plenty of problems with
compacted soil as most of our garden's beds were subject to this and so too
have other gardens she has worked on.

I think a rotovator might do the job, but beware that it might be a bit of a
handful. It should do the job of breaking up what's on the surface, allowing
you to get at the softer, more malleable stuff underneath with the good old
garden fork.

Happy digging

Nick
www.pennix.co.uk

<bapeyton@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1154913522.193527.3400@75g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
> Try adding sand from stream or wash with fine peables in it and {coke
> which is fully burnt chuncks of wood} to the soil. This might softn it
> up, but might make the soil more alkine.
>

Dave

2006-08-07, 9:25 am

Many thanks
Will attempt one fence section at a time, (16 sections)
So in theory I should have it done in just over two weeks ?????????

"Nick Byford" <pennix@globalnet.co.uk> wrote in message
news:vYednal0fo-3l0rZRVnyrw@brightview.co.uk...
> Coke is not actually burnt wood - that's charcoal. Coke is formed from
> coal
> and is not advisable to put on the soil.
>
> Putting mulches of any form on top of the soil generally take a fair while
> to make any difference to the quality of that underneath.
>
> My wife always likes to wet the soil before attacking it with a fork, she
> says the wetting helping to free it up. We have had plenty of problems
> with
> compacted soil as most of our garden's beds were subject to this and so
> too
> have other gardens she has worked on.
>
> I think a rotovator might do the job, but beware that it might be a bit of
> a
> handful. It should do the job of breaking up what's on the surface,
> allowing
> you to get at the softer, more malleable stuff underneath with the good
> old
> garden fork.
>
> Happy digging
>
> Nick
> www.pennix.co.uk
>
>
> <bapeyton@gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:1154913522.193527.3400@75g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
>
>

coriolis

2006-08-11, 1:25 pm

Dave wrote:
> Until recently I had a hedge running the full length of the garden and we
> have never been able to do much with the border that adjoined it as it was
> always rock hard.
>
> The hedge had to be replaced recently (unfortunately) with a fence as
> cutting the hedge was getting to much for me ( retired )
>
> I now want to dig over the border but cannot make much progress on the soil.
>
> I have heard you can hire a cultivator ( think that's what was said)
>
> Would this work on very hard soil and go down deep enough to break up the
> soil for shrubs to be planted.?
>
> Or id there a better alternative
>
>
> Thank you in advance

I am writing from Canada and think I can help you. It would be a good
idea to wait for some rain before tackling the work, to soften up the
soil. Here, we refer to a cultivator as a 'tiller' and so I will use
this more familiar term for my own comfort. If you rent, get a rear
tine model as they are much easier to control that the 'bucking
broncho' front tine models. I've had a 6 HP Ariens model for 20 years
and it still does a great job of breaking up the soil to a fine tilth.
Also, use the tiller to incorporate a good amount of organic matter,
i.e. compost, composted manure, peatmoss, leaves etc. My tiller gets
down to 7 to 8 inches, enough for most plantings. However, for your
shrubs, after tilling, spade dig deeper holes as needed at the planting
locations and incorporate bone meal or superphosphate to provide
phosphorus as an aid to good root development. With fall coming up
this would be a great time to get started. Good luck!

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