Selfsufficientish.com

OK, so we put three pigs on about half an acre of sloping grass for a couple of months. Which they turned into a sea of mud. Naturally. So we moved them into the woods where they're happy as pigs in, obviously, woods.

Now we have to improve the soil they left behind. It's not completely clay, but you do come across the odd large snowball-sized lump of pure clay. We've heard about adding sand, but one question is: how much?

Or do we just get lazy and import a load of topsoil, in which case, another question is: how much will half an acre's worth of organic topsoil for raised beds cost? (Oh, in case your in the Dordogne with half an acre of organic topsoil to get rid of, we're in the Dordogne.)

Could be pricey, I fear. Half and acre is 2000 m3, so if you wanted 10cm coverage (which I think would be enough if you've already got a reasonable base) you're going to need 200m3 or 8-10 truckloads. Reckon on upto €10 delivered per cube and it gets expensive.

Alternatively...unless you are dead set on organic you could get hold of non-organic stuff and improve the world by converting it. We saw a site very close to us being turned from farmland to housing, asked them what they were doing with the terre végétale. Oh, they said, would you like some, and rather than driving it 20km to their yard, they drove about 100 cubes 500 yards and dropped it in our garden. Later they brought the digger down for twenty minutes and spread it around for us. Gratis. They saved a fortune by not transporting it, so they were perfectly happy to get rid of it.

Love the blog by the way.

Thanks Jon,

Will keep an eye out for terre végétale. And thanks for the blog love - likewise, your blogs make excellent reading. Will definitely make time to see more. Bon journée.

Alex

Ummm, calcium compounds are needed. Gypsum if your pH is ok, ag lime (calcium carbonate) or dolomite (mixture of calcium and magnesium carbonates) if your pH is a bit low (acid). Geenrally apply enough to make the soil surface nice and white and dig in if you can.

Nev

Yep heavy lime like Nev say's plus lots of organic matter, compost, manure etc. Usually lime in the winter dig it in, you can also put a heavy layer of organic matter (as deepa s you can go ) on in the winter and let the worms do most of the work. Just keep adding both eventually the soil will improve