What best to do with limited amount of topsoil.

Ok, hope this is a reasonable suggestion. since it is obvious you do not have enough for the whole area, why not only use the topsoil as you dig holes for what plants you want to have there. After you have designed a garden (and I am thinking that is what you want to do). As you find your plants, dig a wider than normal hold for each, remove that soil, mix a little old soil in with more of the topsoil to fill the holes for the new home of the plant. The pile of topsoil can be kept in a corner of your property until it is all gone.

 

Yes you are right @Redwing, despite the area only being cleared in April it has settled to pretty much rock solid in places. I'll maybe see if I can convince my neighbouring framer (not the 1 who poo spread who is less than helpful) if he might like to shallow plough the area for me after I have got the topsoil. He likes Sherry so maybe a few bottles of Croft Original might persuade him. Thank you @redstar but I already have too much garden. I only want to turn this current bomb site into a grazing paddock with perhaps a few fruit trees.You suggestions are very sound for someone wishing to create a garden however.

 

Look for the stuff from a bio plant it don't smell as bad, it's not grey tis brown as in well roted brown

well it goes onto crops wheat/barley/oats and some have of those crops have gone into the hunam food chain

 

Yes I KNOW @Jiffy next door grew barley on the pooed field and then I think the barley went for animal feed but it may well have ended up in a smart malt whiskey! Not come across the brown stuff. It may be better than the dreadful grey sludge but would still prefer cow or horse if I can find it.....what a delightful subject to be discussing on a gorgeous boiling hot day

 

Ploughing would be too much and too deep. Ask him to cultivate with a spring tine harrow or similar. If he is an arable farmer he might have a power harrow which would be absolutely perfect. I suggest spreading the topsoil, then cultivating a couple of times. You should then have a decent seed bed.....but you say there are stones.....more picking I'm afraid.

But it might take more than a few bottles of Croft Original.

 

Never even heard of a power harrow! I doubt he'll have anything smart as his tractor looks ancient and he gets other farmers to do most of his ploughing/ harvesting. He is much more a sheep farmer. However, there is another farmer down the road who has all the latest machinery, bet he's got a power harrow. He's somewhat tight to say the least so what I thought might cost me a few bottles of Croft will cost a few cases of single Malt I fear. I can only ask and he owes me a favour as i rescued 1 of their cat's that had got caught in sheep fencing a couple of years back. Thank you so much for your excellent knowledgeable advice @Redwing. Are you sure you wouldn't like a stone picking holiday in Fife?

 

@silu :did you get your paddock sown?

 

No not ready still! Most of the area is now not too bad after weeks of stone picking and sourcing a few small loads of topsoil and manure from various sources but.....funny how there is a but! I have found a disaster areas which is basically pure stone. It might be some sort of an old stone field drain. All I know is that there isn't even an inch of subsoil far less topsoil. The person who did the demolishing of the remains of the kennels and regraded the land is coming back with a small digger. He is going to dig a hole and then bury the top few inches of this stone and fill the gap with topsoil he's going to bring in with a big trailer he's got. If necessary he'll take away some of the stone if he can't get rid of enough of it here. I'm that this will be done by the end of the month before bad weather might set in altho that said it has flaming well rained just about everyday sine the beginning of August. It was way drier throughout last winter here than it's been recently.
The good news is the original digger made a bit of a dent on a piece of our garden grass adjacent to the "stone field". As a bit of a test I filled the hole with some of the subsoil type stuff and sowed some ancient grass seed I had to see if the grass would grow on this rubbish and bingo not only did the old (must be at least 5 years old!) seed germinate but its growing fine so once the dreadful patch is fixed then I should be ready. Too late to sow this season annoyingly but I'll be ready next Spring around the end of April is when grass is sown in these parts. All being well I will have a fairly decent patch by next Autumn. I might, over winter if the weather isn't too bad, make "better" areas with manure compost and leaf mould I have and plant a few trees. We already have Apple trees which are groaning atm (very good year after the lovely Spring I suppose). We don't have plum trees (did in a previous house and they were gorgeous) so might try a few of those here and see if they will do well. The area is south facing so should be ok.
Many thanks for asking @Redwing. It's been a much bigger/worse job than I thought it was going to be but at least it's the type of job that won't need doing again. I may say with so much time taken up with this my garden looks like The Amazon Rain Forrest and has not improved while my back has been turned on it

 

I'm sure you'll get there in the end with it but it sounds like you are doing the right things.

 

Well the great Scottish stone harvest is nearing completion (only taken getting on for 18 months ) The area of field is now relatively, accent on the relatively stone free and is about as good as I can get it without going into a far end of a you know what.After all it is going to be used as grazing not a bowling green. To give the pasture mix the best chance of growing reasonably well on what is pretty well subsoil I thought about liming the area as we a pretty acid here (can grow Rhododendrons ,Meconopsis etc etc).
The area is about 1/4 acre. Any ideas as to how much lime I should get and how long before I sow should I apply it? It is absolutely bone dry atm and I don't have hose long enough/water pressure good enough to artificially water so I will not be sowing grass until maybe September.

 

You may find you may not need any lime, ie because of the limestone in the blocks and concrete after the dog kennel was broken up

There lots of different agri limes for different soils, you can get someone to test it for you and he/she may say about the different limes to suit your soil and will give the rate per acre

I wouldn't spread lime on the ground then plant grass seed as the lime will burn the grass seedlings, work it well into the soil or water it well in and for peace of mind leave it for a while

Most farmers around here seem to have the average of about 2 ton per acre but that's for planting maize which is lime eaters

When planting maize, it's ploughed, limed and then worked in then planted all with in days

Ask local farmers for lime spreaders and testers for a local contactor, but weather you will get some one to spread 1/4 acre may be hard at this time of year, so you may have to do it yourself

If you use fertilizer for paddocks do you use compound or a bend, if you use a bend it may have limestone as a filler so you may not need the buy lime, but please check first

 

Many thanks @Jiffy but what on earth is a bend? The only bend I know is the knee variety! We don't fertilize the fields we have as it is for horse grazing and it isn't necessary or really very good for them.They were designed to eat loads of quite poor stuff rather than a rich pasture a la for cows. Our fields are ancient sheep grass which is just about right and has loads of all sorts in it weeds of course (have a "magnificent display of field buttercup atm which horses hate hence why there is so much of the damned stuff) but also lots of wild flowers which is good giving a diverse diet.
I know the farmers round here fertilize their grass with Lime/Lime rich fertilizer in the Spring. I just thought it might be good prior to sowing and yup I would be doing it myself as the farmers are far too busy to deal with what they would think is a piddling wee bit of ground. Flaming isn't when you have to destone it by hand! Would some thing like Growmore be better? It's not very expensive as I'd need a fair doze I suppose. Just feel with it being such dreadful soil I need to do the best I can with it prior to sowing. It does now have about 2 tonnes of manure through it and a 11/2 seasons worth of grass clippings added so hopefully that will have improved things a bit.

 

Sorry it's me typing it's should read blend

I would get the soil tested for ph

anyway, as you don't use fert then you wouldn't be puting on lime if it was in the fert

Here a table for using lime to lower ph
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=11&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjCgsvk5PXbAhWGHsAKHQrLDacQFghvMAo&url=https://www.grow-it-organically.com/changing-soil-ph.html&usg=AOvVaw195HH6h_YG8FDwR8yG_HdZ

 

Thanks@Jiffy. the link is useful. I am also going to ask next door farmer when I next see him. If the soil was topsoil I wouldn't be thinking of using any type of fertilizer it's only because it's rubbish that I feel it could do with something. My typing is dreadful and more often than not I have to edit my posts on GC when I read them again