Turning north facing gravel into an oasis of life

[Andy Hamilton]

Since moving to this rented house I have done most of my growing either in pots or up at the allotment. I now finally got around to asking the landlord if I could pull up the gravel and make a garden, he has agreed.

The trouble is now that I have pulled up some of it I have found scraps of deal soil mixed with loads of stones (hardcore). I have dug down about 1 foot and it is still just stone and sandy/rubbish soil. Also the garden is North facing and has a big wall surrounding it so it does not get much light. I am thinking of planting loads of wild flower seed just to get something growing but it has to be at least a bit neat in order for it not to disappear as soon as we move house.
I do have a limited amount of last years spent compost from pots that could go on but it will only really work as a very thin layer of top soil.

So in short the problems are

1. Terrible soil
2. North facing
3. Can't look too scruffy

Any ideas??

[red]

i've already told you what you should do with it, when we came to your place...

chickens

ask landlord if you can keep chickens....

[TheGoodEarth]

Move to a house with a sunny south facing garden??

[MKG]

Hi Andy ... nice problem!

It's not the greatest place to grow anything, but there's no reason why some things shouldn't be happy. The soil that IS there is not necessarily infertile. So - for a start, do your homework on shade-loving plants. Ferns would love it, as they're pretty used to growing under trees. Sage, certainly, maybe rhubarb - there's actually a long list of stuff. Take a look here ...

http://www.letsgogardening.co.uk/Inform ... Plants.htm

Then, instead of using containers to grow the plants, use the area as one big container. What? ... they all say. What I mean is dig a hole where you want the plant to be, fill it with compost, and stick the plant in that. Over time, you'll recondition the entire plot that way.

Alternatively, leave the plot as a rubble site and build raised beds over it - but as it won't be the most productive of veg. sites, that's probably a bit expensive.

Best of ...

Mike

[Cloud]

Raised beds and pots. Turf between the beds for paths and look at herbs and maybe alpines for ground cover elsewhere. Use the pots to get height in to the garden.

How about a greenhouse?

Chickens. I like chickens, but they need to be kept away from the plants - they'll peck/scratch everything.

[Flo]

Now you know why the garden was gravelled don't you?

The spent compost is a good move. Can you scrounge more from elsewhere? I've had a quick google and come up with this quite useful bit of information.

Or this bit of useful information

There are quite a lot of things you can do if you just get a bit of the soil right at a time.

[ina]

Now you know why the garden was gravelled don't you?

Believe me - in some areas they put gravel onto the most wonderful potential growing plots... Even nowadays, when everybody is shouting out for allotments! I live in one of those areas, and I'm lucky that around my house only the shady bits are gravelled. I'm planning to use the biggest of those for a shed.

Otherwise - yes, rhubarb does well on my north side, and I've planted quite a few herbs there that usually tend to get out of control (mint, lemon balm, lovage), in the hope that the not-quite-so-good growing conditions mean they do stay in control!

[Muscroj]

You could get a really lush looking oasis with the right plants. Ferms & Hostas love the shade & Ferms especially hardly need any soil thats why you often see them growing out of walls. You could indesperse them with rhubarb for some edibleness. & before you know it it will look like a tropical paradise! Ask for tree ferns for birthdays & Christmas's for some height & a touch of the jungle. Under-plant it all with native bluebells, snowdrops & wood anemones to give it some life in spring & give the busy bees something to feed on. Cyclamen for the autumn. Wild garlic. Anything that you would find growing in a woodland will grow happily in a shady site & with the right plants surrounding a little seating area and perhaps the trickle of a nice water feature for the birds to bath in & drink from, it will be lovely in no time!

[Muscroj]

oooh have you got room for a wildlife pond? Doesn't need to be too deep when youre not keeping fish, but there are some lovely shade loving marginal plants, irises etc & the frogs & toads will be much happier in a shady spot than they would be if the pond was in full sun

[Andy Hamilton]

I knew you lot would come up trumps, some really good ideas to be going on with there thank you. I will keep this thread up to date with what I do.