It is impossible to change clay soil to sandy soil. Your soil composition is the result of millions of years of geologic effects of earthquakes, glacial movement, oceans coming and going, etc. More recently, the bulldozers that excavated the lot that your home is built on may have had a significant effect on your soil, but even that was probably minimal. If you try to add sand to your clay soil, I'm afraid you'll end up with something very close to concrete. The best way to improve the drainage of your soil is to incorporate organic material such as compost, shredded leaves, wood chips, peat, manure, etc. these will all increase the ability of water and air and nutrients to flow through the soil, which increases the availability of these items to the plant roots. Unfortunately, these additions need to be made repeatedly since the micro-organisms in the soil break the organic matter down, which is how it becomes available to the plants. Fortunately, nature cycles in such a way that organic matter is replaced yearly as fallen leaves each autumn. That is why the soil in deciduous forests is so rich, and why our ancestors cut down all the trees to grow crops. Unfortunately, they also cut down part of the very source of the rich soil. I hope that answers your question, though not in the way you hoped. Martha

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.

My property is 1/2 sand, and 1/2 clay. 95% of my rose planting area is pure sand. Timely question, as I'll be adding about 20 roses to a new, never planted in area of pure sand this spring, and as soon as the rain stops I'll be grabbing the tractor to dump in some buckets of composted horse manure to mix up in the sand. First, I LOVE working with sand. Digging is heaven. The more you can amend into the ground before planting the better, and then expect to amend the ground whenever you have the energy to do so (at least annually). Everyone's recommendations above are great, so many choices for soil amendments. I'm lucky to have 9 horses, so I mix in a lot of composted manure and hay into my ground. I do have cats, but I find dealing with kitty littler gross (with or without kitty droppings in it), and it just feels so chemical"ish" (poor kitties!) that I can't bring myself to put it in my garden. 90% of my roses are on Dr. Huey, who thrives in sand, and most of the roses you buy locally out here will be on Dr. Huey which is the go-to rootstock for California. The only 2 problems I have with my ground are 1. drying out fast, and 2. gophers. For the first, no matter how well amended my ground is, I have to water every other day to third day all summer. While roses are hardy in sand and will survive without enough water, they will not thrive at all. For gophers, I make hole cages out of 1", 20 gauge chicken wire. I made the mistake for my area which I already know has a dense gopher population, of not first planting cages. I realized after about 80 were planted that gophers loved rose roots, and after losing a handful to gophers, I dug up absolutely every one of those 80 roses, caged the holes, and replanted. Didn't hurt the roses at all, so it does still work as an afterthought if it is found that it is a problem.

Bidens bipinnata looks like a match in flower and leaf. They are supposed to grow between 2 and 5 feet tall. The plants I saw were about 6" tall, but it's the only Bidens species that fits. I went through them all. Everything in Asteracea will push out blooms from tiny plants if conditions aren't ideal, so I think that's what's going on here, it just seems unusual to have a bunch of them all in that same, stunted condition. The leaves made me think Bidens. The size of the plants threw me. Thanks mac and Carol! I collected seeds so I can test the theory, tho I'm not crazy about the miserly flowers. There are just a few Bidens species native to here that I like. Aristosa, polylepis and cernua. Trichosperma is nice too, but needs wet feet. At the same place.......