Sand is a part of what makes up soil. Sand particles in relation to the other soil particles, silt and clay, are relatively large. Sand doesn't have the ability to hold water and nutrients like the smaller particles. The best material after clay for holding water and nutrients is humus. Soil with a lot of decomposed organic matter and compost is what you are looking to add.

So since you are not buying anything to amend the soil, you will have to start composting.

By the way, the photo links don't seem to work for me.

No, photo links do not work.

Have you heard of lasagna gardening? It's also called sheet composting or interbay mulch. There is a lot of information on it within this forum if you search, and also on the web. It is basically composting in place.

It might be the best, easiest, least expensive method to accomplish want you want to do.

Karen

Hi greenthumbnick,
I'm in the situation of gardening on sand as well. I decided not to bother too much with digging and batteling the sand/nematodes so I have been gathering as much organic matter as I can find. This includes cardboard boxes, newspapers, lawn clippings, leaves, any wood chips that the tree services want to dump at my place. I have paid a little money to have mushroom compost delivered (like $20 for a huge trailer load.) I get the free compost from our county whenever they have it available.

My first season I didn't have much time to get a "garden" ready so I simply took cardboard produce boxes, plunked them down on a bed of wood chips, filled em with compost from the county, and planted in them. It worked in a pinch. That was this past spring.

This fall's garden has several different types of beds going but I think my favorite was simply laying down some cardboard, piling fresh mushroom compost on it (mushroom compost here is horse manure mixed with straw that has been used to grow mushrooms but now they are done with it, it is usually still quite hot), covering the compost with wood chips and planting. The cucurbits planted that way are doing very well so far.

Now I'm starting to think about prepping beds for the cooler weather crops and realizing I'm running out of compost so I may have to do lasagna beds with a variety of materials for layers, I'm hoping it isn't a problem that they won't get to sit long before I plant in them.

I definitely think gardening with materials you can find rater than paying for dirt is the way to go. Does your local have yard waste pick up? If so you can just go around the evening before they collect the bags of grass clippings ad leaves and get lots of great stuff. Also, if they do collect such things, they probably compost them. Check with your county to see if they offer free compost to residents. Check to see if there are any mushroom farms in the area, they might give away or sell for cheep their compost. We get sawdust pretty cheep from a sawmill in the area. I also tell any tree services I see working in our neighborhood that they can dump the chips in front of my house if the need. They are usually happy to leave the chips unless the person paying for the work wants them. I've gotten three big piles this way. This last time there were lots of palm fronds in one of the loads and that stuff is making great cover material for the compost bin.

More, more, I need more organic material!!!! : )

One thing I did learn about making raised beds. Extend the weed barrier (cardboard or newspaper layers) beyond the actual planting area and cover with mulch. This gives nice walkways that help keep the weeds further from the planting beds. I've found it is difficult to mow right up to the beds and can wind up just flinging the weed seeds right into the planting area!

You could also grow over winter a green manure crop such as sweet clover or broad beans. This will add nitrogen to the soil. Then dig the crop in a few weeks before planting the garden. This will add organic material and give it a chance to break down.

It will take some time but the gradual addition of compost will improve the soil.

As cowgirl2 and tclynx have already stated all you need to do is add lots of organic matter, compost and any other vegetative waste you can get, to that sandy soil. Organic matter in sandy soils fills in the pore spaces of that soil so water and nutrients, that once could easily flow straight through, are now held in place so the plants roots can get to them. What I saw in east Texas when I was ther were lots of deciduous trees that each fall dropped their leaves and for the most part people would rake them up, bag them up, and put them out for the waste hauler to cart away so the next spring they could go the the local garden center to buy bags of peat moss that had to be trucked in, at great environmental cost, to replace the organic matter they threw away the previous fall, and because of the cost of the peat moss those people never added enough organic matter to their soil.

here are the pictures since the other links didnt work.

http://www.dunin.org/garden/picture025.jpg
http://www.dunin.org/garden/picture027.jpg
http://www.dunin.org/garden/picture029.jpg

thanks guys.

nick

I didn't read the other responses, but I did get a chance to look at your soil. I looks a lot like the native soil we had when I used to live in CA. Here in Az, it is even worse. I agree, buying all that organic matter can get expensive. Start your own compost heap and while you are waiting on that to cook, try going to your local freecycle.com. Ask for manure and other organic material. Local farms and home farmers give that stuff away for free for obvious reasons.

Very nice soil. Light and easy to dig. Start now and dig up the patch you want removing all the grass, roots and weeds to your compost. Then add in what compost you can get and plant a green maure crop.

Plant your garden in the spring and enjoy.

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Man, it looks like straight sand to me. You sand mixed with my clay and some compost would make great dirt!!