How deep is your garden?

[Yorkshire Kris]

Just out of interest do you know how deep your garden is? What I mean is how deep is the usable top soil. I have 8 inches before I hit lifeless heavy modelling clay.

[Dave Brown]

I have about the same Kris, but less in some spots I've taken to digging out and dumping as much as I can as Improvement just does not work here.

[Yorkshire Kris]

I have about the same Kris, but less in some spots I've taken to digging out and dumping as much as I can as Improvement just does not work here.

Only 8 inches under your tall chammy?

[fern Rob]

I have about 2ft until I hit a layer of limestone and then clay.

[Rabbie]

Whats topsoil?

[Rabbie]

Whats topsoil?

[DAVIDEVANS]

Mine is all clay. Not the totally lifeless stuff but pretty solid. A spades depth under that is Cotswold scalpings which the builders put down when building the estate before landscaping with this lovely top soil.

I have no any idea how many tons have gone in the bin and down the tip in the 10 years I have been here but getting rid and incorporating as much bought in and home made compost has only made a marginal difference.

[Tom2006]

Mostly over two feet but some spots less than 8 inches.

[Kristen]

Just out of interest do you know how deep your garden is? What I mean is how deep is the usable top soil. I have 8 inches before I hit lifeless heavy modelling clay.

I'm the same. I have soil (e.g. turf removed from where I made a path and stacked for a year) mixed with compost heap and manure, about equal parts, that I put in planting holes and the excavated clay goes into a heap. No idea what I will do with that, or if it will ever weather into something useful.

[multim]

My front garden has about a feet of usable soil before I hit flint and subsoil. The Arid plants love it as it's so well drained. My back garden has been raised over the years so 2 feet of good soil is about average. Any deeper then I need a pick axe to make any headway! I might add that the previous owners adopted the Victorian attitude of burying their rubbish. I wondered why plants were not doing well, then discovered layers of linoleum had been buried by the barrow load. I won't mention what else I found.............not nice!

[jezza]

Mine is a mixture. I think the builders in the 30s tried to level out the slope with whatever means possible. Top 18 inches is beautiful top soil. Then a 2 inch layer of roofing slate followed by one foot of claggy clay. Under that is very chalky soil. The chiltern hills are mostly chalk.

[Blairs]

I have at least 2 spades depth of slightly sandy clay soil, not gone much deeper than that - have also blended in tons of bark and compost, so it is not as compact as it first was.

My parents garden when I was growing up was a rich dark brown clay loam for 4 foot+

[Adam D]

I have at least 2 spades depth of slightly sandy clay soil, not gone much deeper than that - have also blended in tons of bark and compost, so it is not as compact as it first was.

My parents garden when I was growing up was a rich dark brown clay loam for 4 foot+

That's an interesting map.

I am in the wet clay loam area, but as my house was a new-build it is pretty rubbish in a lot of places.

The front garden is okay with 6 to 9 inches in places. However, the back garden only has about 9 inches of top soil around the edges and virtually none in the rest of it. After the topsoil you hit horrible compacted subsoil with builders' rubble in it.

The borders are starting to improve though as every time I plant something I dig out some of the muck and 10 years of dropping leaves and bamboo leaves is adding some much needed humus back into the soil

[Steph]

For once my garden must be tops, quite shocking!
London clay but the soil is good and I have never dug down to find it solid!!!!

[allangreenbean]

Clay here too, so much so they dig it up to make bricks, literally just down the road.

I guess about 2 feet in places but less in others.

The ground is dry rock solid. I am not exaggerating when I say I have to use an axe to dig. God knows how the worms and roots get through it.

Plan is to build up the top layers with mulch of various fineness over time.

Also just installed a modified worm tower ("pimp my worm tower"), will post pictures later. That term has never been used before on the internet so you heard it here first.