ᐅ Tips for Landscaping a New Garden in a Newly Developed Residential Area
Created on: 27 Apr 2023 08:05
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Gooosee159
Hello,
We have purchased a newly built semi-detached house in a new development.
The soil here is very clay-heavy. My question is, how should we start preparing the soil so that we can later sow grass and plant shrubs?
The soil in the garden was dumped by the builder’s team and has become heavily compacted due to frequent driving of machinery over it. Water does not drain properly, and large puddles form quickly in the garden.
There are also many stones mixed in the soil.
What would be the best approach for us?
Should we start by loosening the soil? What would be the best way to do that?
Then remove the stones?
And finally, add sand to the soil?
Thank you very much for your advice.
We have purchased a newly built semi-detached house in a new development.
The soil here is very clay-heavy. My question is, how should we start preparing the soil so that we can later sow grass and plant shrubs?
The soil in the garden was dumped by the builder’s team and has become heavily compacted due to frequent driving of machinery over it. Water does not drain properly, and large puddles form quickly in the garden.
There are also many stones mixed in the soil.
What would be the best approach for us?
Should we start by loosening the soil? What would be the best way to do that?
Then remove the stones?
And finally, add sand to the soil?
Thank you very much for your advice.
Gooosee159 schrieb:
Would you recommend buying an electric garden tiller for around €100-150? They usually have about 40-45cm (16-18 inches) working width and 20-22cm (8-9 inches) working depth with a 1400/1500 watt motor.
Can you recommend a garden tiller? I’ve already found a few: Einhell, Parkside Maso, Scheppach, etc.
We once tried digging by hand, no chance—the soil is rock solid.
We have about 250sqm (2700 sq ft). We used the smaller one from Einhell, and I was positively surprised. It basically digs as deep as you want if you hold it firmly in place long enough. 😉 But it does take a lot of arm strength to operate. That was in Lower Saxony, where the soil is fantastic—not nearly as hard or rocky as here.
If you have lots of stones in the soil, I would advise against it. Stones quickly jam the machine, and you end up spending more time trying to remove stones stuck in the tines (which is really difficult because they get pulled in with a lot of force) than actually tilling.
Rent a powerful petrol-powered one. However, they are not easy to handle. I borrowed ours from a gardener friend, and honestly, he had to do most of the work. The tiller did whatever it wanted with me. I’m neither delicate nor weak in the arms.
And a proper spade that you can comfortably step on.
And a proper spade that you can comfortably step on.
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Gooosee15928 Apr 2023 10:33@kati1337 So, would you recommend the router from Einhell? Yes, it’s clear that it will be hard work.
The equipment from the DIY store is quite expensive, around 100€ per day, and if they are more powerful, they must be even harder to control.
Does anyone here have experience with the Parkside tools?
In the garden, we don’t have as many stones as in the front yard; in the garden, they are mostly just dried clods of earth.
The equipment from the DIY store is quite expensive, around 100€ per day, and if they are more powerful, they must be even harder to control.
Does anyone here have experience with the Parkside tools?
In the garden, we don’t have as many stones as in the front yard; in the garden, they are mostly just dried clods of earth.
S
Schorsch_baut28 Apr 2023 10:45Gooosee159 schrieb:
@kati1337 So, would you recommend the Einhell tiller? Yes, it’s clear that it will be tiring work.
The equipment from the hardware store is very expensive, around 100€ per day, and if they are more powerful, they are even harder to control.
Does anyone have experience with Parkside tools?
In the garden, we don’t have as many stones as in the front yard; mostly just dried clods of earth in the garden.Is it possible that you are ignoring all advice suggesting there is no quick or cheap solution? Einhell and Parkside are fine for light, short tasks. If you have heavily compacted clay soil, where even weeds are not growing and the ground is barely workable with a spade, then you might as well flush your money down the toilet instead of buying cheap discount store equipment—and at least you’d get some noise out of it. I say this as someone who struggled all last summer with compacted clay soil over 500 sqm (about 5380 sq ft).My lesson from last year:
If you want a lawn: bring in topsoil, sand, and turf.
For small beds, a spade works okay, along with plenty of compost and sand, plus regular weeding.
For larger beds, green manure over the winter worked quite well, as did the no-dig method.
What really didn’t work was tilling—even with a petrol-powered tiller that we borrowed. Afterward, we just had a lumpy field of large clay lumps that became rock hard when dry. The weeds loved it. We had brought up clay from the deeper layers and topped it with a fresh layer of topsoil and fertilizer—but the roots were almost impossible to pull out. The area is now a bumpy patch that the lawn mower can barely handle. The shrubs at the edge of the bed are also struggling. We lost two serviceberries, a blackthorn, and an elderberry.
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WilderSueden28 Apr 2023 10:47Get the one from the hardware store. Using a small motorized tiller here is penny-wise and pound-foolish. You can use that kind of tool for turning over your vegetable patch every year. 100€ (about $110) is a small amount in the context of a garden setup.
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Schorsch_baut28 Apr 2023 10:51Everyone has to gain their own experience in the garden; that's something we, as gardening beginners, learned last year. However, it’s wise to listen to advice if you want to avoid too much frustration. One very helpful tip from a gardening forum was to have a soil sample analyzed in order to improve the soil in a targeted way. We applied this to our orchard, and it probably saved us a lot of money since young fruit trees are apparently very sensitive to deficiencies.
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