Started on a new patch, from the collour of the soil I would say it has been cultivated some time in the past, if not there is only about an inch of top soil, or less, and then solid clay. I dug out one end about three foot by four a spit deep and emptied three bags of old sticks and small logs in, then a bag of sweepings from around the chopping block, mostly saw dust and chips of wood, and spread it out to level it off.
Dug a trench all along the bottom edge about eight or nine inches deep and stood large logs with forks or twisted grain in it. They are the ones that are really tough to chop up and they stick up enough that I can make the bed slightly raised. Used some of the earth I took out to sieve and mix 50/50 with well rotted manure, and a touch of fish blood and bone for potato bags. Must have about seventy litres, they say about ten litres to a potato plant in a container. I have nine old compost bags prepped for planting, a layer of wood, a layer of manure and then a layer of soil/manure mix. They are 50 litre bags, but I won't fill them entirely, so probably three potatoes in each. We shall see how it goes, keeping the sun off the bags so they stay cool seems to be the main key to success from the couple of exploratory ones I did last year.
