[Alba]

Hi Guys, I'm new here but still very impressed with this site. Anyway, I have been in my new build house for about a year now. I intend to grow vegetables in my back garden but i am worried about the soil. It's basically very boggy and peaty.
I have dug trenches and put in rubble drains in places and I have still to rotavate. My brother did this in his garden and it toughened up a bit.
I am thinking about putting in raised beds as the thought of trucking in load after load of top soil appears daunting. Does anyone have any advice i could put to use.
I am in Dungloe Co.Donegal. I intend to plant potatoes, onion, carrots, lettuce basically all common veggies and some fruits. Thank you

[Belfast]

there are acid loving fruit you could plant too.
Blueberries
How To Grow BlueBerries - One Of The Top 10 Super-Foods.
http://www.gardenplansireland.com/forum/about1688.html
also
Vaccinium vitis-idaea - often called lingonberry and also called cowberry (UK), foxberry, quailberry, mountain cranberry, red whortleberry, lowbush cranberry, mountain bilberry, partridgeberry

HOW TO GROW lingonberry
http://www.raintreenursery.com/how_to/LINGO.html
Lingonberries
http://growingtaste.com/fruit/lingonberries.shtml

and
Cranberries
Cranberrys, any chance of growing in Limerick?
http://www.gardenplansireland.com/forum/about1554.html


How to grow your own fruit bushes
Cranberries
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/apr/06/gardens54

how to lime acidic soil
http://www.gardenplansireland.com/forum/about2467.html

careful with the lime if you put in too much you cannot take in out

keep part of the garden lime free for acid loving plants

[michael brenock]

is the garden badly drained or is it a boggy soil(peaty soil0 because there is a difference. A raised bed will solve the problem of poor drainage but a boggy soil needs the addition of compost and sand/gravel incorporation. The physical structure of the soil has to be right before anything will grow. Nutrition or manure can be added later when you have righted the first problem. What weeds are already growing there?
michael brenock horticultural advisor (retired)