How to put beds in newbuild garden

[bunchofforgetmenots]

New gardener with a blank newbuild garden - no decent soil, just builders' rubble and clay. How do I go about putting beds in? How deep/big a hole should I dig, and what should I replace the rubble/clay with? Thanks for any help 🐛

I think you can buy topsoil which I imagine is what the rubble needs replacing with. Round here that's about £70 for one of those tonne bags.

I think I'd be asking myself if I'd rather dig the rubble out or put the beds in raised, but I'm a lazy gardener and in no way, shape or form an expert.

Thanks!

Raised beds, made with sleepers or decking boards.

needs to be dug beds rather than raised beds, for various reasons

If you pick plants that are fairly hardy and un-fussy, add some compost/soil improver and grit when you plant, you can reduce the effort! I tend to work with what I've got and plant accordingly. Anything that requires more care goes in pots.

If your putting in raised beds its easy ,stack sleepers ,but make sure you line them with heavy duty plastic ,then fill them with top soil ( thank hubby for doing it all 😂) and plant some lovely beds 👍

Buy lots and lots (and lots) of sacks of cheap multi-purpose compost (peat-free).

Don't bother trying to pick or move rubble out of the clay, unless it is chunks on the surface that you can just pick up and bin as you go.

If there is no grass in the area, just spread two or three inches of compost all over the new space intended to be the bed, just so it looks nicer, like a proper flowerbed. Even if you don't want raised beds, get some decorative edging to delineate bed from (future) lawn.
Buy plants from a garden centre for instant results. Then when you plant each plant, dig a hole bigger and deeper than needed, and line it with compost before putting the plant in and filling with lots more compost.
The worms will work the compost into the soil. Every winter for the next few years put another couple of inches thick of compost all over the beds.

If there is rough grass or weeds, that is a bigger issue. Cover the area with sheets of cardboard (from cardboard boxes cut up), then cover with three inches of compost. Cut a hole in the cardboard to plant each plant, and line the dug hole with compost as before. The cardboard stops light getting to the weeds so they should die off, and eventually the cardboard just rots away.

Be prepared to spend time weeding - if lots of little weeds appear on the compost, rake them to kill them off before they get too big to tackle.

Expect some of your new perennial plants to die - unless you do lots research in advance to find out what suits where, and even then you could get unlucky. So don't worry if things die. (Annuals die every year of course).

You could just sprinkle a load of annual seeds in a corner - rake the ground a bit to loosen it up first - and see what comes up.

Do you know what you'd like to plant? How much space do you need to fill?

100% build raised beds. The sheer quantity of stones never ends, soil improvement never ends, take it from me.

Bulk bags of topsoil on top of what's there. The only fix really.

If there's lots and lots of rubble, I would look at asking for a quote from a gardening firm for removal and putting down decent topsoil. Much easier with a newbuild to start out properly.

If you have a spare £50 you can hire a rotator. It will save you back breaking work trying to remove rubble. One thing you need more than anything is patience. As the large debris comes to the surface, move it to a corner for a wild live haven. Leave the garden in clumps and over the next two weeks. After that weeds will appear. Use a spade to dig them out, trying to get all of the root system with them. It is impossible to clear everything but this will give you a good start. You can if you want use weed killer for the more tenacious ones.

I dug mine over to two spade depths, removed the rubble, and dug in tonnes (literally) of compost

It was good exercise....

Thanks so much for the advice - I'm taking note and making plans!

My daughter is in a new build and I am her gardener. The topsoil does not go down very far and is full of stones and rocks. We clear them every time and there are still more. I have put bulbs in and they flowered beautifully. Now I have planted some perennials and am about to put climbers in her back garden against the fence there for privacy.

If you want to go down the expensive route like some of her neighbours have done then by all means use raised beds with sleepers but it is not necessary.

Her garden is the nicest on her street by far. Some of her immediate neighbours asked her what my hourly rate is lol.
The point I am making is you can have a nice garden without the expense. Just use lots of compost when planting.

You need to do what we did dig up the clay,stoney soil and order couple large bags of the good stuff and make them that way. We now have very smart areas 🙂

I dug out the beds, used tones of compost and each time I plant something new I dig a big hole , remove the stones and put in more compost.Im getting there. Raised beds are short term solution and not really a great garden.
I have a retired lady next door and she is doing what I'm doing, but has more time and money to put into her garden and it's really lovely. The nicest gardens are the ones done with beds and well planted I notice. I am copying retired lady as she is seriously impressive and has really put some beautiful plants and trees in now. Obviously I can't match her as she has the time I don't and the spare cash I don't, but she is a good role model! ( apart from the fact she has her SIL do all her heavy labour )
We have only been in these houses 3 years. We had grass down already so it was just cutting out the beds and preparing then

Yes to be fair what @Softoprider says is true. Despite having shit soil, I'm not having trouble growing plants in it.