My garden is a builders yard!

[Smellyrose]

I live in a house built two years ago. DH dug a coup,e of holes this week (to put a previously potted plant in) and found that wherever he dug the earth had, what looked like, materials left over from the build (eg plastic cabling), as well as being very stony.

I had been planning to put a small vegetable patch in the garden - do you think the state of the soil would be suitable or would I be better with raised beds?

Excuse my ignorance - I've only ever put plants in pots before.

You either dig it all up, or go for raised beds- I know which one I'd go for! Why not limit the digging to an agreed area (say 2 x 2 m) and see what you find? I'd be a bit concerned about growing crops on top of building rubble, you never know what's there. If you want to really scare yourself, look at this:

www.foodfutures.info/www/images/stories/land/3%20b%20Land%20-%20contamination.pdf

Lots of new build gardens are like this.
Most gardens have a fair amount of crap in them (we're digging up bricks mattress springs tyres etc!) But I know a lot of people in new builds essentially have building materials, bit of top soil and grass on top!

I think it's a really bad practice and should be made illegal.

Raised beds are probably your easiest option

Thank you both, Raised beds it is.

Should I build up the bed on top of the soil or get something with a bottom (essentially a huge pot) to stop the plants touching the soil beneath?

just put the raised beds on top of the current ground, but make sure the sides are level and perpendicular to the ground, if they lean they could collapse over time.
As I said, would be wary about growing veg if I didn't know what was underneath, then a large pot would be better. But then I'm probably being over cautious.

Sounds like our garden. New build house, built just over a year ago.

Last summer when we started doing the garden and digging out borders the amount of random crap we found was crazy. Loads of cut wires, cables, plastic, bricks, wood, metal pegs, etc. Plus crap the builders left like empty bottles, crisp packets. Near the driveway we have a fence with concrete posts, I dug a border out the front and there is a plastic bottle that has been half concreted in under one of the fence posts and I cannot get the bastard out!

I think we have got most of it out, well from the borders, under the lawn is probably just as bad.

Plus all our soil is full of stones, the entire garden needs like a giant sieve!

I think it's the same with all new builds, they take the top soil and leave the crap and then turf over it!