The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Techniques and skills => Topic started by: Sudanpan on January 13, 2010, 08:41:53 pm
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Hi
We have a 4 acre smallholding in west cornwall and are building a cottage on the land. TG all planning etc has been dealt with (took 18mths, enough said) and the site is on the side of a hill. In order to get a level site we have had to dig into the side of the hill - resulting in rather alot of spoil - a mix of topsoil and subsoil (max depth has been 1.6m) from an area of about 15m by 28m - the subsoil around here is fairly schaley (?).
We were wondering about what to do with the spoil - to get it taken away would be prohibitively expensive, so we were thinking of distributing it as evenly as possible over the 3 acre field (currently laid to pasture - 3 years growth, before that was in cultivation for brassicas). If we do this would it be best to go the whole hog and plough the whole field again and resow to pasture? Or would it be sufficient to just cultivate/harrow and add organic matter via a much spreader for example?
Any thoughts, comments and advice would be gratefully received.
Thanks
Tish
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I had that problem too and spread it over the field. The only issue I can see is the subsoil. Depends how much of it there is. I was lucky that there wasn't too much but had a load of huge boulders. We put them in a great enormous heap at the bottom of the field as a wildlife zone for the grass to grow over, and kept a big flat topped one as a seating area in the back garden. I think I'd have greater problems down here as the ground is virtually all clay so would need a pretty big addition of dung etc
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we had to do similar when relandscaping on a big scale to the garden of present house, you need to remove all topsoil first from field then spread subsoil, when complete put topsoil back on, our pasture came back fine after reseeding, made up approx 1.0m of ground all across paddock.......................neil
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Could possibly ask around any local landscaping / building companies to see if they'd be interested in taking it off your hands if it's a problem. You never know someone may need some mixed fill for a project. Alternatively there are loads of businesses around who specialise in recycled/remanufactured topsoils which has loads of different materials cut into it....maybe look for topsoil suppliers.
Cheers - Micko
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If you have good old established pasture, it would be an awful shame to disturb it. I think Micko's idea seems sound. Fill your own veggie beds first though!!
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Thanks for the info - hadn't thought about seeing if anyone would be willing to take it away for free....
The current pasture is only 3 years old, and looking at the amount of spoil and the area over which we can spread it I don't think we would end up with much of an increase in depth - if we spread it, then used a tine harrow over the field, would that help to disperse the additional soil enough?
I appreciate that its difficult to give advice on an unseen problem -but any thoughts are apreciatated :)
Tish
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You might get some interest in the top soil if you put an ad' in the local paper. Builders sometimes want it to make up the ground round new houses, for example.
The subsoil is more difficult. It would be worth checking if it is very acid or alkaline. You can check this with an appropriate soil testing kit. You need some reliable samples (6-10) to try. If the soil is very acid it might have to be treated as chemical waste because the high acidity will damage any field it is placed on.
If you are very lucky there might be someone building or similar who wants to fill in a pit or old quarry. So again, it might be worth contacting local builders or advertising in an appropriate magazine.
If you are planning a new home, you might want to use some of the subsoil as the base for driveways and parking areas (after taking out the top soil of course). The shale and rock content would tend to make it better draining and less likely to sink and settle over time.
Just some ideas. Good luck
NN
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you can try offering it on freecycle or freegle, I've seen top soil offered and asked for before :&>
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Thanks for all the input :)
Tish
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Try this. ;D
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/shade_gardening/714