25 Nov 2007,Billy in
.
au:

In article

,
mleblanca wrote:

On Nov 24, 7:18 pm, "SteveB" wrote:
We've just returned after being gone for six days.
Apparently the wind blew while we were gone. There are new
sand dunes in the back yard. The door threshold was half an
inch thick with driven sand.

sounds like the house should've been built on a raised area?

It musta blown like a big dog.

I live in Southern Utah, near St. George. We are surrounded
by sandstone and dunes. Beautiful stuff, just sandy.

grow sand loving plants and let everyone who's stuck with clay be envious.

We want to cultivate a garden this spring, and to plant trees
and plants. What do we need to do special to help our new
plants in this sandy environment? I want to make a
shadecloth barrier for the garden to lessen the direct sun,
and perhaps to help break some of the sand from settling
in on hard won cultivated soil.

dune-holding plants? you might take a look at conditions at the boundaries of the
dune area. although, if a boundary is a cliff face, you probably cannot emulate that
type of boundary :-)

Tips appreciated.

Steve


HI Steve
You will want to add organic matter and compost.
Dig it in............
And then you add some more.

Use an organic mulch which will also eventually
become soil. And it will help hold in the moisture, and help hold
the sand in place.

yeah, that's pretty much the maintenance for your crop areas. for annual mulch,
steal autumn leaves from wherever people don't want the leaves. (sidewalks and
such, if the leaves don't include a pieces of broken beer bottles)

Emilie
NorCal

You may want to but some clay as well to add to you garden beds.
Good garden soil is 30% - 40% sand, 30% - 40% silt, and 20% - 30%
clay. Then you need to add organic materials as Emilie has so
wisely indicated.

add mineral based stuff only when its particle size is slightly smaller than that of
the existing sand. clay particles are too different from sand. you can mix in fine
sand if your sand is medium coarseness.