stoney soil

hi, could anyone tell me what sort of plants and veg will grow well in very stoney soil.

The answer is not a lot, I'm afraid.

What kind of stones are we talking about - mixed rubble as in a new build, or small stones throughout the soil? If rubble, you really need to clear out as much of it as possible before planting. Small stones are less of an issue.

Depending on the size of the stones I'd go for raised beds. They don't have to be 10 foot off the ground, just a board/plank high will do.

One things for sure - root veg will not like stoney soil.

hi, it was a gravel patch with no membrane under it, i have cleared as much as possible, but they go quite deep and would take forever to clear, ive put  about 3 to 4 inches of compost on top

Should present no problems for most things, Carrots and parsnips may need to be grown in areas where there is no gravel though.

thanks very much for all your advice,I love this forum,there is always someone who will have an answer to whatever problem.

You might consider, depending on the size of the area, if not too large, to double dig it and seive the soil as you go. Put a good load of horse muck in each trench as you fill in the trenches and you 'll find apart from it being hard work, the muck will improve your soil, feed the worms which will multiple and in turn push up the gravel in the soil to the surface over the summer. It's then just a case of raking over the surface to collect the gravel in the autumn and again in the spring. Grow what you can this year and by next you could try pretty much anything.

We have been raking off gravel (naturally occurring stuff) from our Veg patches for 16 years and still it comes to the surface.

Except for tap rooted Veg it is not a problem and in many ways it is useful. Believe it or not whilst it is recommended to add gravel to help drainage, it also acts as a moisture reservoire, if the gravel is irregular in shape. Every piece of gravel has a thin film of water around it and the more surfaces it has the bigger the amount of water covering it. Plant roots soon find it which is why you often se gravel stuck to roots.