New to Gardening...

[Matt of Calne]

Hi all,

I've just moved into a relatively new build home (2 years old) and have decided to attempt to create a vegetable patch. The actual area of garden is raised from the house level and is surrounded by a brick wall.

Started digging and 10 cm's down there is a layer of foam/plastic material which seems to cover the whole garden surface, this is not the same as the plastic lining protecting the wall. Now initial thoughts were that it covered the building debris left behind, however a curious look underneath shows that it just covers the natural clay.

So does anyone know what this layer of material is, what it is for and basically can i rip it out in order to sink a border fence in and refill with top soil?

Thank you for any help!

[Brooklyn1]

Sounds like a spot where an above ground pool was installed, not a garden... without more information I can't advise what you can/canot do... but naturally if it's your property you can do whatever you like so long as it's legal. How large an area are you talking about? How high above grade is this area? How is this area situated in relation to the house or other buildings; distance and elevation? A few photos would help a lot.

[Matt of Calne]

Sounds like a spot where an above ground pool was installed, not a garden... without more information I can't advise what you can/canot do... but naturally if it's your property you can do whatever you like so long as it's legal. How large an area are you talking about? How high above grade is this area? How is this area situated in relation to the house or other buildings; distance and elevation? A few photos would help a lot.

Depth 1 ft 3 inch Length 19 ft 4 Width 11 ft 4

The sheet is located approx 4 inches down and you can see it as a white colour on the picture. The sheet has also been found by the shed which is

14 ft 6 away from the corner nearest the property.

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[songbird]

what is the 1'3" depth describing? depth of the clay? sand or gravel or ?

the 3" on top is what? topsoil or mulch or ?

does the material let water soak through?

does the entire area drain ok or does water collect any place? before you put in a wall and gardens, get the drainage figured out, that saves a lot of troubles later...

what kinds of things do you want to grow? any deep rooted plants will not do well with the barrier. so you have to either go up or remove the barrier.

if the barrier is in place because of toxic soil considerations that wouldn't work very well. any chance this is an old reclaimed industrial site or waste site? i don't know the laws in your country and such about this sort of disclosure by the seller so...

right now i'd agree with the pool base hypothesis. might extend it to an abandoned outbuilding base of some type (perhaps a greenhouse). this seems the simplest and most logical answer, but doesn't make sense for a newly built home... so color me confused too. :)

songbird

[Brooklyn1]

inspection it doesn't appear to be the remnants of an above ground pool... why not ask the neighbors? There appears to be a piece of plumbing in the corner of the excavated part (sprinkler system?). Since it's yours dig it up to see what you unearth. Grass seems to be growing well, so would most anything else. I would first dig by hand in case there's plumbing/wiring, or anything buried, then hit it with a tiller and work in lots of organic matter... should be able to plant most anything in that spot, but be observant of drainage/runoff issues, no one installs a water barrier for no reason.