What is the best thing for soil that is a dusty sandy consistancy and does not hold water, thus drying out quickly (the cats love this)
very dry sandy soil
- Thread starter bobajob100
- Start date
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Loads of well rotted manure. You may find some round your way, but be careful. If the land on which the crops were grown which eventually became manure was treated with aminopyrilid, it could damage your plants.
You will not be able to rectify the sandy soil problem quickly, it will take a few years of adding manure/compost/humus. The best stuff is worm poo, so if you know someone who produces worms, that's the place to get it.
You will not be able to rectify the sandy soil problem quickly, it will take a few years of adding manure/compost/humus. The best stuff is worm poo, so if you know someone who produces worms, that's the place to get it.
Thanks, I was thinking as it is two very small boarders of about 10x4 each to dig out all the existing earth down a foot and replace it, would that work?
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Ok Ill have a go at that and see how it goes I suppose there is always slabs and pots LOL 
That's what I would do, good quality top soil.
Adding organic matter even in large quantities, will take a long time to work.
if you can find someone who has a heavy clay soil, and you can swap some of yours for some of theirs, you can break it up and rake it into the surface. You need surprisingly little clay to make a soil heavy.
I am a great believer in organic mulches of garden compost, lawn mowings, horse muck. If you spread it thickly on the surface the worms will take it in for you.
I garden on a heavy soil, though there are sandy areas near me.
BTW a sandy soil can give a really good lawn, though it will need watering in summer.
I am a great believer in organic mulches of garden compost, lawn mowings, horse muck. If you spread it thickly on the surface the worms will take it in for you.
I garden on a heavy soil, though there are sandy areas near me.
BTW a sandy soil can give a really good lawn, though it will need watering in summer.
I think Thermo sums it up well, in one word too.
It will give instant benefits as its overriding function is to retain moisture so the plants can take it up. If you look around the countryside, even in poor soil areas, you will see plenty of grass, magnificient weeds and plenty of trees. They just shove their roots down and find water. In gardens, many of the plants are shallow rooted and so find no water.
The reason for this is, much of these areas are never touched, so over many many years the dying vegetation provides its own compost.
These weeds have had in some areas, hundreds of years to do this.
Mixing compost with dusty soil will leave you with, a mix of compost and dusty soil, which will take a long time to break down.
Dry dusty soil will have few or no worms, if you go the compost route, buy some worms which will speed up matters considerably.
Long break down times are good. The dust is there in every soil, and alleviated by water.
When the soil is dry, worms go deep and curl up, waiting for the next watering.
I have sandy soil on a heath, that's dry. I have never bought any worms, or imported them. They turn up when it's wet enough.
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