David wrote:

-snip-
I'm in central Florida and also have a sand garden. Jim, are you serious
about the ton of organic matter or was that just a way of saying "lots
an lots"? And if you really did mean a ton, how big a space is it?

It was a wild-ass guess. The garden has shrunk to about 50 by 50 as
I get older.

I'll try to estimate a little closer--
I mow about once a week from June through August I mow my lawn & bag
my grass. - To keep the math simple and guess that I probably miss a
couple weeks we'll call it 10 mowings. I empty the bag 6-8 times
each mowing, so that's 60-80 bags of grass. 50 lbs per bag [another
wild guess] would give me 3-4000 pounds of grass. I probably add a
few hundred pounds of maple, ash & oak leaves to that in the fall.

I've been doing this since 1986 [with a couple years off for illness].
The previous owner had a garden on this spot since the 50's at least &
he said he took most of the clippings from his side-business [he and
his sons mowed a few lawns] and turned them directly into the soil.

Still, there is just a very subtle difference between my garden and
the mason's sand that I order from the concrete vendor.


I generally have pretty good luck in fall and spring if I add lots of
compost. I grow a variety of leafy greens, some beans, tomatoes and my
zucchini is doing well this year. Summer is just too hot to grow much (a
local friend has good luck with black eyed peas).

A least I don't often have heat problems. Upstate NY--- usually my
neighbors complain about cold & wet ruining their gardens. [most of
the county is clay-- my garden is an oddity] The sand works well for
cold & wet.

I sometimes think that the mustards will grow in beach sand.

I should try to grow more of them. My kids like broccoli & cabbage.

My biggest weeds are purslane, lamb's quarters and garlic mustard.
When the purslane starts disappearing I know I'm making some
headway--- but it usually comes back with vigor in a couple years.
[at least it's tastey] The garlic mustard [a brassicaceae] does
indeed persist anywhere I neglect for more than a couple weeks.

Jim