Improving soil

[BeBraveAndBeKind]

We moved into our house just over a year ago. It has quite a small garden with a squarish lawn with another square bit attached to it. The grass on that bit was very poor but it's the perfect size for a very small veg bed so I took the turf off and dug it over.

The soil is in terrible condition. It was obviously the site where the previous occupants burned household rubbish because I found nails, concrete, insulating material, part burned chip board etc and I didn't find a single worm in the whole patch.
I got a much out as I could and planted beans, beetroot, onions and kale. The beans and kale did okay. The onions barely grow and the beetroot did not grow at all.

It's very, very alkaline (top of the soil testing scale) How can I improve the soil without having to shop for soil supplements? I currently don't have a composter other than a wormery. Any ideas?

Do you have a local stables where you can get well rotted manure for free?

Plants need nitrates and potassium, you can help them by watering them using water left over from cooking vegetables, potato water is particularly good. Dried Banana peel and crushed up egg shell is also supposed to be good for sprinkling on the soil.

If it's that bad you could remove what you can and replace with multipurpose compost and manure?
It's still possible to get compost at supermarkets as part of your weekly shop. Garden centres near us are also still functioning and doing a collect or delivery service.

Could you put a compost pile behind a shed or somewhere not too obvious. You must need to compost the stalks of the beans etc. It doesn't have to be in a container, though don't put meat or anything just raw greenery.

Collect your food waste (not meat, dairy), dig a 1 foot deep hole and bury it. Then plant beans/legumes on top. The food will break down over time and be away from flies, mice etc. The beans can get the nutrients. Beans also fix nitrogen into the soil, improving it for the next plants.

You could do this for part of the patch each year (crop rotation) and see how it goes. Cheaper than buying tons of compost in.

Thanks all.

@peajotter I have vague recollection of my dad doing that when I was little. I would like to try and use what I have to improve it so I'll give it a go. Can I put in lawn clippings as well as long as its thin layers?

@HennyPenny4 No space for a free standing pile unfortunately. I'm hoping to get a compost bin when the lock down is over and just stick in in a border and grow something over it. I have a wormery for compost for pots but there's nowhere near enough to make an improvement in the wider garden.

@TiddleTaddleTat removing the soil was my first instinct but I'd have to shift loads. Even 50cms down I was finding huge pieces of concrete like they'd just tipped it into the garden while it was still wet and it had set there. My husband's no gardener but even he took one look and said "that soil is shit!"

Bbbk The best thing, ultimately, may be to remove the soil and take out the rubbish in it, then put the soil back. My brother-in-law did this – their garden had been the base for the builders when the house has been built 30 years before and it also had big lumps of concrete in. It did take him a long time but the garden is now lovely. If you take it slowly and do a small bit at a time it should not be too bad and you will then have plenty of space to add some well-rotted manure...