[Plantoid]

I've met a small holding family ( 18 or so acres ) today.
 They have horses , pigs chooks  a greenhouse and are hard at it.
 I have given them the ASS addy and offered to do some research for them as they have their hands full at the moment.
Here goes.
 They live in hill country with crumbly limestone just under or in many places on the surface of the hills .
Thee is no soil to speak of just a film of clay holding most of the crumbled stone together. enough for green grass to grow and a few scrawney hedge row shrubs.


 They have  made raised beds for all sorts of materials and used stable muck and neat horse dung for the infill as well as stable muck that has ben placed int he chicken run and added that after the chooks have been working it for several months .
 They have a patch of comfrey that they have been using to ad to the beds .
 
Firstly
Have any of you guys and gal's got such a lousy soil and do any of you use 100 % composted stable & chicken muck only to fill raised beds ?

Secondly
Do any of you have any experience with growing bamboos  or bamboo type grasses if so what were your soil conditions and what type/species did you use.

 Thirdly
What sort of small holding friendly and unfriendly evergreens or long lasting plants like pampas have any of you used to make wind breaks and used for loose fine scree consoildation  on a very steep bank/ hill side . How invasive are these evergreens / plants.

 I do understand that most evergreens are  posionous to most small holders stock but I'm after the types used and circumstances they were used in..
For I have good home made soil now and also can use my raised beds & glass house to propagate all sorts of cuttings etc. for them .