Newbie. Super rocky soil

[monarchking]

Hey people. Im 23 and from Otago New Zealand. I dug up my first vege garden a few weeks back and planted some seeds, spudz etc. on the negative the ground is riddled with stones! hard to dig yea but I got it done lol.

Um some of my seeds have germinated, some havent. Still early stages I guess. i was wondering Since the ground is so rough, should this be a major issue? and are there some plants that would even prefer this type of ground!?

I proli rushed the prep of the soil a little to much. But I was just so keen! I think I will be moving house in a few months. The soil will be the same, hard, dry, and full of stones.

Is it important to get all the stones out or will most roots by-pass them and yeild well?

[Lesley Jay]

Hi there and welcome!!

Ideally you need to remove as many stones as possible. If you are growing root veg like beetroot, carrots, spuds, parnips, turnips etc. the stones will affect the way that the veggies grow and can pierce holes in the veggies. Carrots usually turn out really small with 'little fingers' on each carrot instead of one large carrot. Digging compost in to the ground will help loosen the soil. Make your own compost (it's free!) or in the autumn collect the fallen leaves from the trees and dig these in the ground. It might be an idea to grow the root veg in containers and you can grow potatoes in buckets, one seed potato per bucket.

[monarchking]

I have alot of straw. COuld I dig this into the ground. Or will it have no afect?
Alos im adding all my vegtable scraps etc into there

[richardwil]

Hi

My suggestion would be to build raised beds and fill these with a soil mix. If you make them 6 inches deep (15cm) that is 6 inches of growing depth before you get anywhere near the stones. Make them from deeper wood and your growing depth is deeper. The other thing to think about is that raised beds can be moved when you move to your new house and just rebuilt. Moving the soil mix is a little more difficult due to bulk but can be done or you can just make a new soil mix.

There is a page about soil mixes on my web site.

Cheers