I have had the same garden for 35 years and most of the soil has remained ungardened and untouched. I say that because the sub soil is best left undisturbed and I am not a fan of double digging (ie 2 spits deep). Underneath the lawns the soil is left untended and almost half the garden was and still is down to grass. We are probably all guilty of doing little to improve that soil under lawns unless we are laying turves or new seed.
I don’t think it is a false memory when I think of my father going out with a bucket and shovel after the rag & bone man’s horse to collect a deposit. Dads rhubarb and soft fruit were the post war beneficiaries.
For many years I went to a local stables for bag it yourself horse manure. My son helped me until he grew up but I never did grow up that is. He encouraged me to get the hot stuff from the new part of the not inconsiderable pile left by 30 riding school horses. This was intended to activate my own garden compost heap and help improve my own composted output. Mainly it just activated the nostrils. I on the other hand aimed at the bottom of the pile for the oldest and theoretically the best rotted stuff that helpfully could be cut in slices like peat in shape but not texture. This I wanted to use on roses, runner beans and for general garden use. I collected many bricks and stones, a bad back and a wonky car suspension system. The garden collected the unrotted weed seeds to germinate where and when they wanted. To be fair the old stuff was OK weed wise but fairly solid in structure.
Without my willing labourer, now off at university, I ordered and took delivery of a lorry load of ‘well rotted manure – honest Guv’ stable manure. It arrived on a farm trailer that couldn’t tip over a
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