How to grow in poor soil

[Jo Bloggs]

Hello everyone. :)

I am moving to an area of Wales next year where the soil is primarily slate and dust and very hard to grow in. I anticipate raised beds and a few people there already are experimenting with forest gardening.

I am a complete gardening novice so any tips appreciated. I have many idiot questions, such as "how do I get worms into my raised beds? Can I buy them at a garden centre along with my compost?"

Thinking of trying the volcanic rockdust to enrich the earth - but again this needs worms to be truly effective.

Any ideas or obvious stuff I may not know?

Cheers.

[ina]

Muck, muck, muck.

Seriously, try to find a source of muck; that'll help a lot in poor soil. You can fill your raised beds with it and even turn them into a kind of hot bed... Muck usually brings worms with it (particularly if it's well rotted and from a farm that doesn't go too heavy on chemicals). I've never seen worms on sale in a garden centre - although I don't know why they shouldn't stock them. You can definitely get them via mail order.

[Thomzo]

Hi and welcome
You can buy worms for wormeries. They do OK outside. Either off the internet (just google "wormery") or from fishing bait shops. I can't remember which type of worm it is you need but just have a look at them. It would be quite expensive to buy any quantity though so the manure route is probably the best.

Do you know if there is a freecycle group near your new home? If so you could try putting out a request for top soil. If it's reasonably damp you should get some worms in it. Just be aware that you might get weeds in it as well but if you cover it with a deep layer of manure that should suppress the weeds.

Don't expect overnight success though. It will take a couple of years to get the soil into good condition so probably best to concentrate on doing a smaller space really well to start.

Good luck

Zoe

[Jo Bloggs]

Cheers, hadn't even thought about fishing bait shops!

Looks like horse poo is the way to go then. :)

[ina]

Any kind of poo will doo...

Maybe think about a compost toilet in the long run. Or keeping a bit of livestock yourself. AND - compost heaps, of course!

[Millymollymandy]

Leaf mould too - you'll need at least a year to get the leaves decomposed enough to dig into the soil and they don't add a lot of nutrients, but it is really good rich humus. After two years ours is like a perfect potting compost!

I mention this because you mentioned forest gardening so I presume unless it is a conifer forest there'll be a few leaves around!

[Smooth Hound]

Buying worms from a fishing shop is one way but somewhat expensive , if you look on the internet you will find them alot cheaper, I could sell you smaller ones for 14 pounds for half a kilo, or 20 for 1 kilo or 35 for 2 kilos including postage. one kilo would be approx 1200 small worms, larger amounts i would give price on enquiry

also for soil, have you checked with your local council as to whether you have a centre that recycles forest waste and so forth, we have one in our area that does loads of 20 tons for about 80 pounds, and with some compost dug into it in rasised beds and some worms it would make an excellent soil.

[eek]

The worms you want are red wigglers, great for composting. The multiply like rabbits in the right conditions. Eat TONS, make great compost. I had a 1 lb. bag that lasted 3 years, had a bad freeze and didn't get to them in time. Keep them warm and moist but not wet and you are good to go.

Eek

[possum]

start composting!!
compost absolutely everything you can, it is amazing how much you can generate in just a year, we are on very poor soil (it used to be a shingle bank) the entire veggie garden was made from composted kitchen waste (most by the previous owners and then we expanded it) the soil is fertile.

also go get coffee grounds from your local cafe, chuck that in, horse poo, anything at all, it shouldn't take too long ot get the soil fertile.