Please help! I think I'm going to have to do it all again.

[EverdeRose]

I bought a new build house last summer with quite a sizeable garden. I rushed to get it turfed so I could enjoy it over the summer but it's now come time to pretty it up.

Last year we made a border along the back wall of the garden, it was our first ever bit of gardening and neither of us had even used a spade before :s . It's approximately 20m. We put down a weed proof membrane and bark chippings over that. The ground was really difficult to dig, it had been an old car park, so we found loads of cement and bricks and some huge tree roots, I'd say all in all we dug down about 5/6 inches in most places and in one corner that was particularly bad about half that. We were so proud when it was all done and it looked lovely.

It's prettying up time now and we've not dug deep enough have we. I've been having a good look on the internet and plants, trees, shrubs and bulbs and I've got this terrible feeling we that we should have dug a hell of a lot deeper than we did.
Have we completely ballsed it up guys? Please tell me I won't have to shift all the stuff and dig down further.

I think OH will kill me with the spade if I suggest to him that this year we redo it.

[bookbook]

sorry .but no, you haven't in truth .
My DD moved last June into a new build , and we are doing it a bit at a time for her . My DH took a masonry bit and cordless drill, to drill through the compacted soil/rubbish . It was about 3' , until we got through the rubbish. ( there was about 1' of nice top soil on 2' of horrible stuff. We have put a lot of things in pots until we can get the whole thing done

[EverdeRose]

Bugger, I thought so, and to think we thought we'd done so well.

What would you recommend, should we dig it all out or just spot dig where we want to plant things. All we want it a low maintenance border, something we can put in and requires little attention.

[bookbook]

I would start by spot digging for any biggish plants, do a bit at a time. I was shocked at how bad our DD's garden was- beautiful turf all laid, digging into nice soil, but under that it looked like a steamroller had flattened out all sorts of building rubbish - bits of wire and brick, rubble, hardcore - you name it.
Just try to get through the solid pan as much as possible - (we drilled holes in it as I said ) , and fill with compost and soil . Give them some feed too - a good dollop of something like blood, fish and bone in the bottom of the hole to give them something to get on with :) Just as a rule of thumb - with any shrub/tree, once grown the roots will be grow to be as wide as the bush/tree is tall IYSWIM?.
I would then leave the weed membrane and bark in the other areas around the plants , and use planters/raised beds until you can face doing it all !