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New piece of land for garden extension
Gardenqueen
Posts: 43
Hi everyone Just purchased a new piece of land to extend my original garden. The land at the moment is grass and weeds with a few bricks on clay soil. what is the best plan of action after all the debre has been shifted to get the most out of the soil? The plot is going to have a pond area, lawn, patio and borders. Any advice will be great to get the most out of this piece of land.
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Get a load of well-rotted manure and some compost (? farmer, riding school, local council, cheap bags full). You will need it for the borders if you have clay. It will help make the soil more workable later.
Do you recommend adding grit to the mix to prevent a waterlogged lawn?
I once recommended adding coarse sand and grit to clay and someoneelse wrote in to say you shouldn't do that, it would make it worse. But I didn't really understand as it made the patch of soil I added it to much better. Perhaps you would need too much for a whole lawn. See if anyone else answers. Manure in th beds will feed plants as well.
How about some photos of the land?
Adding grit and coarse sand, as well as as much compost & manure as you can lay your hands on, will always improve clay soil, so would strongly suggest you do that. If the land has a history of becoming waterlogged though, it would be worth getting a professional to look at it with a view to perhaps getting some land drainage pipes laid before you get started. However, with all of the rain we've had over the last few months, if the land is not waterlogged right now it probably doesn't need serious extra drainage and adding grit/compost should help a great deal.