Hiya! Garden advice please anyone?

[Candy]

Hi everyone, just found the forum! :)

I just wondered if anyone could chuck their opinion into the mix here.. thanks in advance!

Just moved into a flat, the garden is shared. At the moment it's overgrown, the problem is that underneath all the grass & stuff it's gravelled (pebbled) but the membrane underneath is useless... the upshot of this is - (we're all agreed we'll share the work which is great) but without having to spend money as we don't own the property, would it be better to weed, then rake half the pebbles to one end and just plant up the rest do you think?

I'm not used to such crimes as covering the whole garden in stones you see, lol!!

[Val]

Sounds like the former "gardeners" were Ground Force fans. I used to watch that program as they brought TONS of "pebbles and stones" to dump all over to "mulch" the gardens. I'd just scream at the TV...WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING???......knowing I'd have met anyone at the gate who wanted to do that in my garden with a shotgun.

If you have no place to get rid of the rocks and you just want a place to garden I think your idea of just weeding, raking all the rubble to a pile in the far corner is a viable solution. Yank up all that nasty weed cloth and dump it in your skiff. There would probably be enough vegetation and soil on the raked pile to maybe even grow some type of ground cover over the top. Maybe cover over the pile with a thick layer of wet newspapers, toss some more dirt over that and sling some mixed wild flower seeds over it. I dunno, you have my sympathy with that pebbled mess.

Val

[Billy]

Gärtner Heil (sorry, inside joke not worth mentioning)

Depending on the amount of pebbles, Val's suggestion sounds right. Too many pebbles to just turn them in to the soil? Vineyards in France make use of stone and pebbles to retain daytime heat which is released at night. I've seen this near Sancerre and Châteauneuf du Pape is famous for this. At Sancerre, the grape canes were about 6" (16 cm) off the ground. It's just a thought. Grapes are perennials, gardens, not so much. New soil must be dug and amended but then you might then look into no-dig "lasagna gardening". In three years, I've turned clay soil into the most magnificent, light, fluffy soil that I've ever seen.

Mulching with alfalfa will feed your best allies, the worms (although I'm unsure how this could be done in conjunction with pebbles and stones). It's too late for cover crops, but rye and buckwheat will add a lots of organic material to the soil, and peas and clover will add nitrogen, reducing your need for manure. Consider it for next winter. Chemical fertilizers tend to kill-off soil fertility (microbes in the soil, whose life cycles provide nitrogen for your plants), thereby making you more dependent on them.

Gärtner, entlassen!