Gardening....

[Welderpaul]

I've just about finished the building works in the garden, and shifted all the soil into the borders/laid a land drain/dug over/filled a 4 yard skip with bricks/builders rubbish.
The soil is variable from pretty good to dry/dead. I need to dig something in to improve the drainage.
Don't fancy buying loads of peat cos its a fortune...whats the best thing to use...some sort of manure?

 

[breezer]

I'd use any kind of farmyard manure you can get your hands on for free.

 

[MattF]

If you know anyone who has rabbits, guineapigs or any other herbivore, see if you can get the droppings off them and just pop them straight onto the soil as is, or mush them if you prefer liquid fertiliser. You could also appropriate any horse droppings you find on the road.

 

[Robotstar5]

Just find a local stables, they'll be glad to let you reduce the muckheap

 

[mike os]

best for drainage would be sharp sand.... lots of clay?

otherwise manure/peat/compost/topsoil... all seems pretty much the same price these days

 

[brightspark]

sharp sand mixed in for drainage and will loosen heavy soil up and good old farmayard manure {sh xxxxxx t} to give the soil fertility

 

[snowcat]

depends what you want to grow partly and what you wish to improve(structure/fertility/index etc), adding anything with straw will add organic matter and P and K with a small amount of N although the nutrients may take some time to be available, adding vast amounts tho will cause acidity problems...

Id avoid stable muck unless its very old and has become incredibly hot, because horses haven't the best of digestive systems most seeds pass straight through the gut, so your have weeks coming up for ever more, stables also love to dump wood chip in the pile which causes nutrient lock up, Cattle muck (FYM) is far better.

TBH its not much good just adding muck, structuring soils is quite complex, If its clay things like Gypsum(old plasterboard) are ideal and will add some lime balance if adding muck, whilst sand soils generally need organic matter added continualy...