Sandy soil - best way to increase organic material cheaply

[Min]

Hi all

Large parts of my garden are covered in very old lawn. I want to cultivate and plant shrubs and borders so I dug several sample holes to see what I'd got. I found:

a) very sandy soil. Did the jam jar and water test - it is almost 100% sand once you go below the turf

b) at about 12cm depth the sand is compacted rock hard

c) no worms

Is there a way to improve about 100 square meters without breaking the bank?

I thought I'd have to bite the cost bullet and get a mini digger in to break up the compaction to a decent depth, say 300mm - rotovators won't go deep enough.

The digger would also improve the soil a bit by digging in the turf, but not much.

Bought compost is going to cost a couple of hundred quid just to a depth of about 5cm.

Is there a better way to approach this, say by growing green manures?

Any suggestions?

 

[Deleted2797112]

Whatever r896neo says.

 

[r896neo]

as said rotted manure is often free if not very very cheap. Make sure it is rotted though not fresh

 

[HERTS P&D]

Fence off the area and put some chickens on it, they dig, scratch and turn over soil like anything. Chicken poo is also very good for the soil.

Andy

 

[Deleted2797112]

r896neo knows best.

 

[r896neo]

Or how much he wants his garden to smell like a farm yard.

 

[ntb]

You can't have cheap, low effort and fast as a combination....

Rotted manure is probably going to give you the best compromise if you can get hold of it in quantity.

Otherwise:
If you don't do composting, now is the time to start. Stick a bin with drainage outside by the kitchen door and put all your veg peelings, rotten salad, toilet roll inners etc in it. Once full, pile it up at the end of where you want one of the beds to be and repeat. Pile up all your grass clippings and (ideally shredded) prunings there too. Once you have a sizable pile, turn it over in the direction of the other end of the bed periodically.

In the Autumn, go collecting leaves. Make a chicken wire pen and pile them up. Leave for a year and repeat.

You will have to keep at this whatever you do - the organic material will slowly decompose and disappear over time.

 

[r896neo]

Ceres,

Not sure what the edited replies are supposed to mean but i'm sorry if i have seemed like a know it all or my responses have offended you in some way.

The garden smelling quip was meant to be light hearted rather than contrary.

I'm often guilty of reading the original post and then replying without carefully reading the other replies first.

 

[Min]

Thank you for all your replies, particularly Ceres which fortunately I read before they were edited. They have helped me to decide my plan of attack is:

1 well rotted manure on to ground - going to take quite a few trips but I'll think of it as free gym membership
2 mini digger to break up compaction, and dig in any manure, rest of manure will be treated by winter weather and worms
3 sow green manures and nitrogen fixing shrubs (eg broom)
4 borrow neighbour's chickens to crop and recycle the green manures in the spring
5 ask neighbours for prunings* and lawn mowings and start another compost pile adding 'recycled beer' to aid nitrogen levels (* seen good enough cheap shredder on ebay)
6 liberate leaves wherever possible for large leaf mould pen

Details for those that are interested:
1 micro brewery too far away and spent hops good texture but little nutrients

2 Surrey mushroom farm industry has disappeared

3 my existing compost heap and worm bins produce lovely but far too little volume to tackle the problem in a reasonable time frame

4 found very local stables with well rotted and easy to access manure. They even supply the bags, so just need time and effort to bag it and bring it home. Since it is local, not having a trailer is no longer problematic.

Again, many thanks for your time and experience folks.

 

[ntb]

Beware of cheap shredders! The ones that whizz a couple of blades around are next to useless. Go for one of the 'quiet' shredders that work using a sharpened Archimedes screw unless you are going to spend hundreds.

 

[Min]

ok, thanks for 'quiet' shredder advice.

also school at bottom of my garden just had a load of scrub and small trees cleared, guy is returning tomorrow to shred so will see if I can get the shreddings


. . .you make your own luck if you keep your eyes, mind and heart open

 

[OwainDIYer]

You can buy worms

http://www.wormsdirectuk.co.uk/acatalog/earth-worms.html

 

[Min]

Excellent, thanks. I was wondering 'bout them . . . ..

 

[ntb]

If you have areas rich in organic material they will appear as if by magic anyway.

 

[wrathkeg]

A different approach: I once heard one of the panel on Gardeners' Question Time say that she had never improved the soil in an entire border. Instead she makes sure that there is plenty of organic matter added to the appropriate place at planting time. Although most sources will tell you to improve the entire border, you might do a bit of research to see if you really need to in your case.