It may be an old thread but reactivation may garner new readers so it is important to point out that using mothballs in a garden setting is highly discouraged!! They are a pesticide and are sold under a strict EPA pesticide label that restricts usage to only as described by the label. To use for another purpose or in another manner is a violation of federal law. Mothballs contain a couple of highly toxic chemicals - naphthalene or paradichlorobenzene - both of which leach into soil and groundwater. They can kill off necessary soil organisms and even damage the plants they are intended to protect. They can seriously harm pets, can be attractive to kids and also present a risk to you when applying as those chemical easily volatilize into gasses when exposed to air that irritate eyes and lungs and are suspected of causing cancer. Instead, use wire cages to protect bulbs from predators or an appropriate spray or granular deterrent. ps. because of their toxicity, I wouldn't even use mothballs to deter clothes moths....the only pests they are registered for.

I use sand. Been using it for over 40 years. East coast, west coast. Coarse sand, river sand. For heavy clay loam, add about 1.5 inches of sand on top and till it in as deep as possible. Remember, all loam soils already have some sand in them. So you might not need to add as much as you think. Once you've amended your soil with sand, it's permanent. You can add some humus by top-dressing or mulching every year, but you will need a lot less compost for that than if you were amending the top 8 inches of soil every year. So the sand is a lot of work at the front end, but it saves you a lot of work every year thereafter. Then I rake the soil up into raised beds. I don't use any retaining structure. By the time I'm done, I've got at least 10-12 inches of well-aerated loam soil. Everything grows like mad in this stuff. Once the winter rains hit the soil, and then it dries the next summer, you might decide that it's still a little too stiff. Add some more sand. Or mulch with sand; that works really well. On heavily leached acidic soils, it's also a good idea to add lime. I prefer dolomite lime, because it has Magnesium as well as Calcium. If you have pure, impenetrable clay (which I call subsoil clay) , you're done for. Often this stuff will smell like methane when you disturb it. I recommend that you replace it with good topsoil, or pile good topsoil on top of it. If your native soil will grow healthy weeds and grass, you should be able to amend it with sand. If not, you need to truck in some soil. All of my experience is in areas with high rainfall and heavily leached acid soils on the east and west coasts of the US. So I don't know if sand will work in other situations. I do know that rock gardeners and rare bulb growers use sand extensively for growing beds in the entire northern tier of the USA. My experience is with very rare, difficult plants. They will thrive in prepared soil with added sand; most will do very poorly in heavy clay loam. Believe me, if this didn't work, I would have given it up a long time ago. If you have a big area, you will probably need to buy a dumptruck load of sand, and rent a little tractor with a bucket and tiller. Otherwise you are going to get the workout of your life. For the science behind this, google "soil triangle". It's pretty simple, really. Add some sand, get loam. Add more sand, get sandy loam. In my opinion, sandy loam is garden heaven for a wide range of plants. A few plants prefer a heavier soil, but most gardeners grow a lot of different things. Sandy loam warms up earlier, is easier to weed (they pull right out), doesn't stick to your shoes, doesn't compact, is well aerated, and gives amazing seed germination. My rare plants reseed themselves all over the place. I never saw that with clay loam. I like a humusy organic soil as much as anybody. But I don't have time to amend my soil with humus every year for the rest of my life. What are you going to do when you get old (like me)? Just add the sand now and enjoy. Skeptical? Worried? Buy a bag or two of sand at Home Depot. Dig it into a small area and see if it works for you. But make sure that your clay loam is in a tillable condition, or you are going to end up with an awful mess. It can't be too wet or too dry. I've never used peat moss to improve garden soil. Too expensive, too temporary, no nutrients. I use it in potting mixes. This post was edited by lilydude on Tue, Apr 22, 14 at 21:55

Almost all plants in an Alpine garden needs a slope. Usually rocks are used to support the slope. Drainage is paramount, no matter how you achieve it. Adding sand to good loam or clay and you get stucco if you have no slope and it retains water. Free draining is the key. Build your berm as high as you are able. Some alpine plants prefer limestone based soil and some prefer acid. Some don't care what the ph is. I smear mud on rocks, plop some sedums on it, and walk away. You can arrange the rocks as in a rock outcropping, dump gravel between them , squeeze a few plant in, and watch things grow. An alpine garden does not need plants wall to wall. Mike This next picture isn't meant to look good, but to show how sedums and succulents can be grown in even the most adverse conditions. Here they are growing on wood and rocks with just a minimum amount of soil. Friends come by and add or subtract stuff all the time. I'm not in charge. lol Ignore the telephone booth. It's a joke. I'm still trying to find an appropriate place for it. Mike Here's another part of the garden that looks a little alpine. It needs a major makeover as I haven't touched it in about two years. Time constraints, you know. I have done nothing to the soil except give it a slope. It's good loam on the acid side. Mike...on vacation

Nooooooooo! Avoid it please unless you're a cactus/succ grower of the highest ranking in the land and know all its issues and problems and it's the grittiest, chunkiest sand on earth! The trouble with using sand of any kind is that the grains are so much smaller than the other components, i.e. the pumice, chicken grit etc, so it washes down through the mix and in time, when you look at the top half or so of the mix, it will consist of mainly the larger particles. However, the bottom half of the pot is where all the tiny particles will have been washed down to or even dropped down to. It fills all the air spaces up that you're trying to create and drives out air and compacts, that's why it's used for paving work. Sand will stay wet, wet can mean cold, wet + cold = rotten roots! The basic idea of a gritty mix is to get particle sizes of a uniform size, you will never do that if sand is in that mix. This may be a strange comparison but may help explain what I mean....ever made a crumble topping or rubbed in some pastry? Notice how all the large bits stay on top and smaller bits drop down to the bottom of your mixing bowl? Shake the bowl and big bits rise up to the top for rubbing in again....sand will act just the same! Realise everyone's opinions differ and I respect other ppl views, will be interesting to see what others think:-) Gill