Advice please for sandy soil garden

14 years ago

Dear all,

I have an opportunity to make a garden for an elderly couple who are moving to country on their daughter's property. They are moving to their new trailer today. I promised them that I will make a garden for them.

The major priority is low maintenance as they are not in good shape, then, color, bloom, and fragrance. I thought about OGR, especially Texas Earthkind roses, such as Carefree Beauty, Marie Parvie, DdB, Louis Phillip, and Martha Gonzarez - I have rooted them by themselves, and they are in 1 gallon pot. I will also drag Almond Verbena out of my pot ghetto. Maybe some Salvia Greggii.

The challenging part is their soil is sandy with small rocks in. I remember reading here before that some people put a plastic shopping bag from grocery store on the bottom of hole that rose goes in to keep water. As the bag gets broken down about the time the rose has stronger root system so it is good. Will there any other tips you can share? Is there any other plants and roses that will be good with sandy soil & drought?

My budget and elbow grease are limited but I sure would like to make a beautiful garden for them.

Featured Answer

palepinkrose

13 years ago

I have straight beach sand in my yard. I would try and add some top soil if you can, that helps a lot!

Then add lots of peat moss, compost and organic matter.

I also would not think of roses when I think (low maintanance)

My parents are in their 80s and I just re did their yard to make it easier to care for buy actually taking out all of the flowers and only having small shrubs and trees that need no pruning. I also put in 2 layers of weed barrier and bark to keep the weeds down.

To add color back into the yard, I used a mix of green, red and yellow bushes to add pop and interest.

Its sad to not have any flowers, but weeds and over grown plants are even more sad.

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Comments (7)

calistoga_al ca 15 usda 9
14 years ago
Growing in the sand can be done. I don't know your limitations, but the soil would hold moisture and nutrients longer if you could work some compost into the soil before planting anything. For a low maintenance garden for an elderly couple,( we are in that category) I am not sure I would think Roses. I would suggest a good vegetative mulch for what ever you plant to lesson the weeds and conserve the moisture. Al
lookin4you2xist
13 years ago
If you can find plants grafted on Fortuniana , it may help. My beds were sand 20 years ago, years of mulch breaking down does wonders.
Andrew
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Please forgive this long rambling post. I obviously don't know what I'm talking about, really, but think of it as a sympathetic brainstorming post. Organic material won't turn a beach to gold, but it provides the water retention and nutrients in one product. Most people raising vegetables concentrate on the top six inches of soil because vegetables have relatively shallow root systems being annual type things. Most of the soil food web is happening in this top inches where the oxygen is, as well. The question is, if you do put down 6 inches of topsoil over two feet of sand, how long will the topsoil stay there? You need somebody who's actually done it to say yay or nay. I don't have any experience with how fast pure clay would wash down into two feet of pure sand. I'm thinking on this question in light of my own experience, though, and I know clay doesn't wash down through pine fines mulch. Clay tends to stick to organic material, even when one is sorry that one poured the muddy bucket of water on one's mulched front beds and tries to wash it off with a hose. Another thing to consider is that you won't get clay loam in any bag labeled topsoil. Those bags have always contained half decomposed pines fines mixed with a goodly amount of sand around here. Now, this is good advice anywhere--LOOK at anything someone is calling topsoil before you buy it. Don't be paying somebody for topsoil if you're getting pine fines and more sand. I know a daylily grower once said he grew his daylilies in pine fines--that's why I got them as a mulch. Around here they are sold in bags labeled "soil conditioner." Some of my bags still looked like fine pine mulch, and some were more decomposed to a compost looking stuff. Maybe you could remove some sand and put down a layer of pine fines under whatever topsoil you get. Being wood, they wouldn't disappear as quickly as a more finished compost, and I bet they would help hold onto any clay-type topsoil you brought in. True, pine fines might suck up a bit of nitrogen as they decompose, but you could watch your plants and give them an extra bit of bonemeal or something if they seem to need a boost. The fruit tree idea is what has me raising my eyebrows. I'm not sure something as big and demanding as a fruit tree will grow in several feet of sand no matter what's put in the top foot of soil. The great thing is, you can experiment yourself. It's not the end of the world if a fruit tree dies on you, and if it does well you can come back here and tell us about it!
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It's a good idea to build raised beds for vegetables and you can amend the soil within the beds (25% amendment to 75% native sand). The raised bed should be at least a foot high from ground level and a foot deep. Better yet, make it two feet deep into the native soil. if you really want to spend some money, dig 2 feet deep, put a 12-inch walled raised bed on top of that and fill the now 3-feet-deep pit with bulk "potting soil" (from a good landscape supply company). Never bring in "fill" to top off native soil, no matter how good one thinks the topsoil is. It creates interfacial tension (drainage becomes weird). When it comes to trees, it's always best to work with native soil without amendment. 6 inches of anything on top ain't gonna make a deep-rooted tree happy. Most trees are happy on sand. Citrus and stone fruits will require extra watering and feeding but the sand will be fine. By the way, "beachsand" is soil. And it drains well and it's easy to dig. Lucky you. Joe
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when people say mulch... I think it makes a difference in what you mulch with..... here is link to one of threads where I had the same problem..... https://www.houzz.com/discussions/4122019/soil-is-starting-to-she-water-help#n=10 My soil was shedding the water... I am in Florida and have major sand.... when I started my rose garden I dug down 4 feet deep and filled it with horse manure and let it decompose.... then I planted in my nice new soil. I mulched my roses with red much..... however, as that wood started to break down it created a crust on top of the soil.... it and the sand kept my roses from getting water...... I ended up buying some good top soil.... hauled in more horse manure and topped off the garden.... and EVERY year I now use mulch from my own banyan tree leaves that I chop up with a Sun Joe.... My soil seems to now hold water better... however, I what seems to baffle me is WHERE does the soil and mulch go.... after all of the things I have done.... I am still getting sand..... It is alot of work to keep adding dirt and mulch, and I don't think I am building up the soil.... just keeping even because if I stop I am back to sand.
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christi1996
13 years ago
Something else that might be helpful is those watering crystals - I forget who puts them out - but those are like the stuff inside baby diapers. They suck up water and hold it in a jell.

Knowing what I do now about wet feet for plants, I don't know if it would always be a good idea but it sounds like in their case it might be helpful.
User
13 years ago
try a low maintenance gravel garden with salvias, zauschneria, legumes such as cytisus, spartium, genista, californian poppies can be broadcast, pinks, stachys, romneya, flax, arctotis, osteospermum and other south african daisies, eryngiums, grasses, especially stipas, lavenders, indogofera, baptisia, yuccas, geranium palmatum, oriental poppies, anthemis, artemisia - all these are drought resistant, easy to care for and look fantastic. You could go for some of the ground cover roses and also species such as nutkana, R. stellata mirifica. This sounds like a wonderful rewarding project and I wish you the best of luck.
cathystpete
13 years ago
I'm in the Tampa, Fl. area, we have very sandy soil here. If you are doing own root in sandy soil, then roses very closely related to the old china roses do best. They will be happy with Louis Philippe, Le Vesuve and also Cecile Brunner.

As for other plants, it depends on how cold it gets there. I love Crape Myrtle trees and shrubs. Various Jasmines do well in sand also, as do Allamandas (usually yellow), Plumbago (blue), Bird of Paradise (orange) Variegated Shell Ginger (green with gold stripes), Variegated flax lily (green with white stripes), Lantanas (various colors). If frost free, Pentas and Plumerias are great. These are all easy to start from cuttings, even the roses.
leoncio516
13 years ago
if possible add peat moss to the bottom along with polymer pearls(bio-degradable)to keep water at the bottom so you have some retension or use that for the entire bed.Then add tons of redworms to change the soil to a loam faster. the worms will mix these together with the soil with the peat and polymer pearls eventually becoming the soil.don't use alot of polymer pearls about 1/10th of the soil will do. then you will have a soil with good drainage and good retension! not including natural fertilizers! can't get any better than that!Good luck!

Advice please for sandy soil garden

palepinkrose

Comments (7)

calistoga_al ca 15 usda 9

lookin4you2xist

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