Marl and rotavator, hello everyone looking for some advice

juststarting · Hazel Tree Joined: 10 Aug 2009 Posts: 7

as my name says i'm"juststarting" in to gardening well just on 8 monthsmainly veg.with my neighbours help i grew some potatoes,lettuce and cabbage that turned out edible.lost my brocolli as they went to seed on me. my veg were mostly in raised beds but this year i would like to plant in the ground however i live in the southeast and the ground is all marl i started double digging a area earlier in the summer but with the wet weather i got caught out .so now i am looking for somewhere to buy a cheap rotavator any suggestions,also on what veg and plants do well in this type of soil
thank you looking forward to the helpyou can give me

ian · Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 12:17 pm Post subject:

my advice would be to forget the rotovator and get back to double digging doing a little every day you have plenty of time, so take it handy, pull out all roots as you go,
regards Ian

Sonairte · Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 1:22 pm Post subject: Double digging

Don't do it, especially if you have a heavy clay soil. All it does is destroy the soil structure and your back. Don't use a rotavator either. If you are starting this time of year to make a garden bed for next year go looking for a length of heavy black polythene that you can weight down over the area you are trying to clear - old silage sheet is the best. Empty compost bags work well too. Or a few layers of heavy cardboard. Weight them down well so the wind won't catch it. If you do it now the weeds will die from lack of light and the worms will have taken the dead foliage down into the soil by spring - you'll have your soil pretty well cleaned and the soil will have been enriched by all that organic material. Then you can just use a light border fork to get out any of the perennial weeds that are still kicking.

As a matter of interest why did you decide to abandon the raised beds?

kathy

juststarting · Hazel Tree Joined: 10 Aug 2009 Posts: 7

kathy

i havent abandoned the raised beds totally but wood costs money and its very hard to get good soil for them down here in wexford

Sonairte · Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2009 4:01 pm Post subject:

Raised beds don't have to have sides - you can mound them over - which means you can plant tall stuff in the middle and lower plants round the edges. This stabilises the bed and isn't a home for woodlice and slugs - which the edges of constructed raised beds can be