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Post by gracielagata on Jun 9, 2015 16:31:36 GMT
Hello all. I was wondering what everyone's thoughts are on adding sand to a garden to lighten the soil. My parents' garden is mostly soil and their plants seem to come into maturity much faster than mine (even heartier so far it seems like), even though mine was planted sooner (I mean cold weather plants here). We live 3 miles apart my road, less by crow, lol. We both put roughly the same nutritional things in our garden; chicken or horse/cow manure. They do water much longer than I do, but I think because of the high sand amount they have, they can do that (their garden is also HUGE compared to mine, i so I no ratio-wise, they probably aren't watering *that* much more than I am). They don't get any real puddling. I get pretty heavy puddling after only 20 minutes on my 60x30ish foot garden. I make sure to water in small increments throughout the day- ~30min AM, then again a couple times in the evening for about the same. I also might hand water in there as well. I was reading online that putting sand into a garden is not recommended, as it can create hard/cement-like soil. But I have a little section I did it in inadvertently, as I was trying to lessen the heaviness of the dirt/make better drainage for some potted plants, so I just made my mix in the garden and left it. It looks to be fine as far as not making cementish soil. Anyhoo, any helpful thoughts?  Thanks! |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 9, 2015 18:29:42 GMT
Yes sand will help, so will other light amendments like sawdust, finely ground bark, shredded leaves and peat moss. Just add a little at a time. Compost will let water drain faster but also holds water too....James
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Post by paquebot on Jun 9, 2015 19:16:38 GMT
Sand plus clay and silt make loam. Nothing wrong with making something that is natural. If your soil puddles fast, it's either too much clay or silt in proportion to everything else. Organic matter will temporarily correct it but sand is a permanent fix. Start with 15% which would be an inch when normally tilled. Then adjust upward from there until you get it to where you and your plants like it.
Martin
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Post by gracielagata on Jun 9, 2015 20:31:23 GMT
Thank you both for the replies! I did know adding organic matter would help lighten it as well, but knowing it has to be re-added every so often is a deterrent for me. I would like to add manure etc for health, not for lightness. And especially thank you for the actual inch amount to do it with. You mean an inch when normally tilled- i.e. put an inch on the top of the empty garden come fall and till that in and that makes 15% addition. I also have some sorta composted stuff I can take from the chickens when I do the sand. Then it can ferment over winter after being applied in the fall. Sorta what I did with my chicken straw/manure. I put it on top of the garden in the fall, tilled it in in March/April-ish. I plan to till it in in the fall this time though. All of this is such a learning experience. What is the reason for reading online in so many places that adding sand to the garden is supposedly a no-no? |
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Post by Bear Foot Farm on Jun 9, 2015 22:26:22 GMT
It's hard to say "why" in regards to some of the things you see on the internet.
It all has to be taken in context, and on an individual case by case basis
For improving drainage, sand is hard to beat
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Post by Cabin Fever on Jun 9, 2015 22:46:34 GMT
You will be able to till that sand in to only a depth of 6 to 8 inches. Below that depth, you are still going to have the same impermeable soil. So, instead of water ponding on the surface, you are now going to have water saturating the root zone of your plants and drowning them.
My recommendation would be to modify the soil surface so excess water runs off the garden rather than ponding on top of your garden.
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Post by paquebot on Jun 9, 2015 22:49:24 GMT
Normal tilling depth is about 8". 15% of that is about an inch. 15% also happens to be about the amount of sand in a decent loam soil. The 15% is just a starting point if your soil is real heavy and has little humus in it. Compost or organic matter is only a temporary fix since it all breaks down to individual cells eventually. Exception is woody materials which contain little or no nutrients but contain carbon humus which may last a thousand years.
There is no plausible explanation why some claim that the best soils in the world are concrete. That is what they would be if the no-sand crowd prevailed. My own garden soil began mainly as a silty clay. When it dried, it had wide cracks which is what clay does. (Silt has smaller cracks.) Organic matter wasn't the answer as it still returned to the same wide cracks when it dried. Sand corrected that problem. I did find out that 15% was about maximum for a raised bed. That's because it drained too well and thus dried out quicker.
Martin
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Post by gracielagata on Jun 9, 2015 22:57:06 GMT
It's hard to say "why" in regards to some of the things you see on the internet. It all has to be taken in context, and on an individual case by case basis For improving drainage, sand is hard to beat That was my thought, but I found so many sites saying not to do it as it caused concrete-anism lol. I hardly found anything in favor it seemed. I figured 'speaking' to someone was better than random who-knows websites. |
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Post by gracielagata on Jun 9, 2015 23:02:00 GMT
You will be able to till that sand in to only a depth of 6 to 8 inches. Below that depth, you are still going to have the same impermeable soil. So, instead of water ponding on the surface, you are now going to have water saturating the root zone of your plants and drowning them. My recommendation would be to modify the soil surface so excess water runs off the garden rather than ponding on top of your garden. I don't want to have the excess runoff as that would just be a waste in my mind. As for drowning at the root zone... couldn't that be combated by not watering so heavily at once? I have no issues doing that, I have everything timered. But I just figured that adding a bit of sand would help a bit still. As to modifying the soil surface to create runoff... I pretty much have that now. The garden is in an area where there used to be a decent slope, and I am slowly fixing that as we till it; i.e. we till it and then toss it towards the bottom in hopes of eventually evening out the slope lol. So runoff does happen, and I hate it, as it seems to make it hard to figure out how much water to give without it just running down and pooling where there are no plants (or going to the yard, which does help, but again, a waste). What would you recommend to modify the soil surface then, if you did it that way? |
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Post by gracielagata on Jun 9, 2015 23:07:03 GMT
Normal tilling depth is about 8". 15% of that is about an inch. 15% also happens to be about the amount of sand in a decent loam soil. The 15% is just a starting point if your soil is real heavy and has little humus in it. Compost or organic matter is only a temporary fix since it all breaks down to individual cells eventually. Exception is woody materials which contain little or no nutrients but contain carbon humus which may last a thousand years. There is no plausible explanation why some claim that the best soils in the world are concrete. That is what they would be if the no-sand crowd prevailed. My own garden soil began mainly as a silty clay. When it dried, it had wide cracks which is what clay does. (Silt has smaller cracks.) Organic matter wasn't the answer as it still returned to the same wide cracks when it dried. Sand corrected that problem. I did find out that 15% was about maximum for a raised bed. That's because it drained too well and thus dried out quicker. Martin I don't know if mine has lots of humus or not. lol I need to read up on how to touch test the soil to see what it is made of. I just know my parents' garden appears to be nearly all sand, lol and their garden thrived last year. I don't think mine is heavy on the clay, at least not clay how I grew up knowing it. It does pack down pretty hard where I walk, which tends to then pool. Theirs does not do that, it just seems like a beach in the walking areas, lol. i do have lots and lots of worms though, at least. Will they run from the garden if I put sand? My parents seem to not have a single worm they say. |
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Post by Bear Foot Farm on Jun 10, 2015 0:50:52 GMT
In addition to adding sand, another thing that can help drainage is to use a "subsoiler" or a "chisel plow" which is nothing but a narrow plow that reaches deep enough to break up the "hard pan" that forms below normal tilling depth en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SubsoilerAdding sand alone to some types of clay can make something similar to concrete or brick, but the trick is to balance it with organic materials too See if your county has online GIS, which should have USGS soil survey information that can tell you what should be there |
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Post by viggie on Jun 10, 2015 1:33:35 GMT
What is the reason for reading online in so many places that adding sand to the garden is supposedly a no-no? Sand + Clay = Concrete My Extension agent drilled that into us when I took the Master Gardener course. Sand needs to be added by volume, which isn't possible in an outdoor setting. So we were taught never to recommend it. But training is regional so it may be possible some States see circumstances where sand is needed *shrugs* |
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Post by paquebot on Jun 10, 2015 2:51:06 GMT
The Israelites made great bricks with Nile clay, sand, and straw. When they were deprived of straw and had to use stubble, the bricks fell apart. Still applies. God and my late brother-in-law could make loam and any reputable landscaping company can also do it. No reason why the average gardener can't do the same.
If there is a subsoil problem, and only a small garden, it's not all that difficult to work 16" instead of the usual 8". Tool needed is a 16" trenching shovel. With loose dry sand and compost on top of the soil, stand on the shovel straight down to its full depth. Pull back to about 45º. Sand and compost will fill into the void behind it. Back up 8" and repeat. First one is hard, all others are easy. No lifting or digging, just using weight to set the shovel and weight again to pull it back. When done, your operating soil will be 16" deep instead of 8". It's the easy way of doing the double-digging thing which is best for younger backs.
Just thought of something else. We just had a thread about a jar test to determine what type of soil one has. The 3 basic components will separate into their individual percentages. For those who say that sand can't be added to clay and silt, will they also say that shaking the jar will not put that sample all back together again?
Martin
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Post by gracielagata on Jun 10, 2015 12:58:48 GMT
In addition to adding sand, another thing that can help drainage is to use a "subsoiler" or a "chisel plow" which is nothing but a narrow plow that reaches deep enough to break up the "hard pan" that forms below normal tilling depth en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SubsoilerAdding sand alone to some types of clay can make something similar to concrete or brick, but the trick is to balance it with organic materials too See if your county has online GIS, which should have USGS soil survey information that can tell you what should be there That is a neat tool. I am sure I have been busting it up to those depths a bit myself prior to using my parent's tiller. The county can't account for added soils and such though, right? I am 99% sure that what the garden area is has been placed there when the original owners built our house. It is the only spot on our property, aside from the sod-made yard area that is smooth and not full of rocks and boulders and has nice deep dark soil. It actually used to be covered over with 4 or so inches of river rock as some stupid decoration. I moved all those (Ugh!) and below that was heavy sheeting, a layer of broken down mulch fines, another sheeting, more mulch, more sheet, then under that was nice clean rock free dirt of some sort. All that has been tilled together and had organic matter added. What is the reason for reading online in so many places that adding sand to the garden is supposedly a no-no? Sand + Clay = Concrete My Extension agent drilled that into us when I took the Master Gardener course. Sand needs to be added by volume, which isn't possible in an outdoor setting. So we were taught never to recommend it. But training is regional so it may be possible some States see circumstances where sand is needed *shrugs* Gotcha. The Israelites made great bricks with Nile clay, sand, and straw. When they were deprived of straw and had to use stubble, the bricks fell apart. Still applies. God and my late brother-in-law could make loam and any reputable landscaping company can also do it. No reason why the average gardener can't do the same. If there is a subsoil problem, and only a small garden, it's not all that difficult to work 16" instead of the usual 8". Tool needed is a 16" trenching shovel. With loose dry sand and compost on top of the soil, stand on the shovel straight down to its full depth. Pull back to about 45º. Sand and compost will fill into the void behind it. Back up 8" and repeat. First one is hard, all others are easy. No lifting or digging, just using weight to set the shovel and weight again to pull it back. When done, your operating soil will be 16" deep instead of 8". It's the easy way of doing the double-digging thing which is best for younger backs. Just thought of something else. We just had a thread about a jar test to determine what type of soil one has. The 3 basic components will separate into their individual percentages. For those who say that sand can't be added to clay and silt, will they also say that shaking the jar will not put that sample all back together again? Martin What is stubble in that context? I will remember that idea on digging to 16". As I mentioned to bear Foot Farm, I think I had been inadvertently doing a version of that myself, just not for sand addition. I was doing it to manually break and till the area up and remove the boulders and stray river rocks they used as decoration in spots before we tilled so as to not bust the tiller, and before they had bought the tiller. That is a funny concept about it not going back together again in the jar test. Thanks everyone again! |
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Post by northerngardener on Jun 10, 2015 13:34:49 GMT
You might be interested to read Steve Soloman's book, "The Intelligent Gardener".
There is a lot of good information about improving soil through amendments. I'm not smart enough to understand it all, but I think he would recommend gypsum to a soil like yours. Anyway, don't take my word for it, read the book. I requested it through my local library.
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Post by Cabin Fever on Jun 10, 2015 14:16:11 GMT
I'm sorry, I misunderstood your original post and interpreted it as indicating that you had trouble with water ponding after significant precipitation events (my bad!). In my opinion, as a soil scientist, the best amendment you can use in your garden to improve soil tilth is compost.
When comparing your garden to your parents garden, I am wondering about sunlight and heat. Lighter soils warm up faster than heavier ones, perhaps this is one reason why their harvest is earlier than yours. Where we live, our garden is in shade for part of the day. Our veggies are always behind those of friends living in the area who have gardens in full sunlight.
The other suggestion I have is to get your garden soil tested. You want to take a sample from a 10 to 20 spots throughout your garden (~8" deep) and mix them together. Then, take about a cup of this sample and send it to your University's soil testing lab for analysis. They will send back your soil texture, organic matter content, pH, nutrient status, lime requirement, and recommendation for fertiizer amendments.
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Post by paquebot on Jun 10, 2015 14:35:56 GMT
[/quote]What is stubble in that context? [/quote}
Stubble would be mostly the roots since the straw would have been cut off at ground level. In short, they were trying to make bricks with compost.
Martin
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Post by Deleted on Jun 10, 2015 14:45:25 GMT
I'm sorry, I misunderstood your original post and interpreted it as indicating that you had trouble with water ponding after significant precipitation events (my bad!). In my opinion, as a soil scientist, the best amendment you can use in your garden to improve soil tilth is compost. When comparing your garden to your parents garden, I am wondering about sunlight and heat. Lighter soils warm up faster than heavier ones, perhaps this is one reason why their harvest is earlier than yours. Where we live, our garden is in shade for part of the day. Our veggies are always behind those of friends living in the area who have gardens in full sunlight. The other suggestion I have is to get your garden soil tested. You want to take a sample from a 10 to 20 spots throughout your garden (~8" deep) and mix them together. Then, take about a cup of this sample and send it to your University's soil testing lab for analysis. They will send back your soil texture, organic matter content, pH, nutrient status, lime requirement, and recommendation for fertiizer amendments. Bingo! 80% of the gardens I see that are having problems it's because they don't get enough sunlight, not because of the soil. |
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Post by paquebot on Jun 10, 2015 17:50:44 GMT
For those who think that adding sand to heavy soil make concrete, what do you get if you add 30% sand to approximate equal parts clay and silt? Cabin Fever and I know and it isn't something that nobody would want.
Martin
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Post by Cabin Fever on Jun 10, 2015 18:06:33 GMT
1/3 sand, 1/3 clay, and 1/3 silt gives you a clay loam texture. You will notice that a soil texture classified as "clay" can still be as much as 45% sand.  |
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Post by Cabin Fever on Jun 10, 2015 18:19:24 GMT
The reason people get "concrete" when mixing sand into a heavy clay soil is that they are breaking down the structure of the original soil. A clay loam, having good tilth, will likely have a nice granular (grapenut-like) structure. This type of soil structure has good permeability and makes a wonderful growing medium. You maintain that granular structure by adding organic matter (which is the "glue" that holds the individual clay particles together into larger 'crumbs'). You destroy the permeable granular structure by overtillage, compaction, and/or mixing sand (or other non-organic matter) into the clay loam. IN other words, the mechanical action of mixing breaks down the clay crumbs and separates the clay particles into a solid mass. By doing such, you have turned a permeable granular soil structure (good) into an impermeable massive soil structure (bad).  |
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Post by gracielagata on Jun 10, 2015 20:37:31 GMT
You might be interested to read Steve Soloman's book, "The Intelligent Gardener". There is a lot of good information about improving soil through amendments. I'm not smart enough to understand it all, but I think he would recommend gypsum to a soil like yours. Anyway, don't take my word for it, read the book. I requested it through my local library. I will go look for it, thanks! |
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Post by gracielagata on Jun 10, 2015 20:46:38 GMT
I'm sorry, I misunderstood your original post and interpreted it as indicating that you had trouble with water ponding after significant precipitation events (my bad!). In my opinion, as a soil scientist, the best amendment you can use in your garden to improve soil tilth is compost. When comparing your garden to your parents garden, I am wondering about sunlight and heat. Lighter soils warm up faster than heavier ones, perhaps this is one reason why their harvest is earlier than yours. Where we live, our garden is in shade for part of the day. Our veggies are always behind those of friends living in the area who have gardens in full sunlight. The other suggestion I have is to get your garden soil tested. You want to take a sample from a 10 to 20 spots throughout your garden (~8" deep) and mix them together. Then, take about a cup of this sample and send it to your University's soil testing lab for analysis. They will send back your soil texture, organic matter content, pH, nutrient status, lime requirement, and recommendation for fertiizer amendments. Hmm... sunlight and heat. I would say my garden gets all day full sun except for a moving couple of hours max in the afternoon- some time between 2-5ish (I will check exact today: 1:40pm and no shade yet), as the sun changes sky position and a lone pine tree shades sections of the garden. Then by 5ish it is all open and sunny again. Theirs is roughly the same. Heat... I don't know how one can know that as different... they are 3 miles up the road, have trees away from the garden which provide wind blockage and also a bit of the same shade for the same time of day, as the trees and garden sit at nearly the same angle for them that they do for me. Definitely agree with the lighter soil for them vs. for me! They say it is because I don't water enough... i can't water anymore in one moment I don't think, as it just runs off eventually. I do water multiple times at smaller amounts each time compared to them. I just might do a soil test as well. I am not truly discouraged, this is just all very new to me, and seeing that I put seeds in the ground before they did, but yet they have larger plants and can harvest sugar snap peas and lettuces, for example, is frustrating and makes me wonder what I am missing. I'm sorry, I misunderstood your original post and interpreted it as indicating that you had trouble with water ponding after significant precipitation events (my bad!). In my opinion, as a soil scientist, the best amendment you can use in your garden to improve soil tilth is compost. When comparing your garden to your parents garden, I am wondering about sunlight and heat. Lighter soils warm up faster than heavier ones, perhaps this is one reason why their harvest is earlier than yours. Where we live, our garden is in shade for part of the day. Our veggies are always behind those of friends living in the area who have gardens in full sunlight. The other suggestion I have is to get your garden soil tested. You want to take a sample from a 10 to 20 spots throughout your garden (~8" deep) and mix them together. Then, take about a cup of this sample and send it to your University's soil testing lab for analysis. They will send back your soil texture, organic matter content, pH, nutrient status, lime requirement, and recommendation for fertiizer amendments. Bingo! 80% of the gardens I see that are having problems it's because they don't get enough sunlight, not because of the soil. I am thinking that isn't the issue for me, but who knows, lol!. What is considered in shade 'part of the day?' I have something that is working better in one way that I can tell: my strawberries grow and produce way more than theirs do due to more sun exposure I assume, as they are fairly shaded where they have them. |
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Post by gracielagata on Jun 10, 2015 20:47:39 GMT
What is stubble in that context? [/quote} Stubble would be mostly the roots since the straw would have been cut off at ground level. In short, they were trying to make bricks with compost. Martin [/quote] Gotcha... so it is the stuff left in the field after the straw is cut.. they just somehow sorta dig it up? Is the addition of the dirt and stringy root parts what was the problem for the brick making? |
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Post by gracielagata on Jun 10, 2015 20:52:24 GMT
1/3 sand, 1/3 clay, and 1/3 silt gives you a clay loam texture. You will notice that a soil texture classified as "clay" can still be as much as 45% sand. Eeks, I haven't messed with graphs in so long lol. The reason people get "concrete" when mixing sand into a heavy clay soil is that they are breaking down the structure of the original soil. A clay loam, having good tilth, will likely have a nice granular (grapenut-like) structure. This type of soil structure has good permeability and makes a wonderful growing medium. You maintain that granular structure by adding organic matter (which is the "glue" that holds the individual clay particles together into larger 'crumbs'). You destroy the permeable granular structure by overtillage, compaction, and/or mixing sand (or other non-organic matter) into the clay loam. IN other words, the mechanical action of mixing breaks down the clay crumbs and separates the clay particles into a solid mass. By doing such, you have turned a permeable granular soil structure (good) into an impermeable massive soil structure (bad). So this graphic means know what your soil is before adding sand as some combos can make concrete-like soil, then. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 10, 2015 22:14:56 GMT
What I see here is what is sold as top soil, brought in by the truck load, leveled and sod put on top. Packs like concrete, when the lawn is watered it just runs off. This is called loam or top soil, when in reality it is silt from river flooding. Very fine, no humus to hold water at all. Water cannot pass through it, much like cement. Worked in, it is good but is too fine alone, has a lot of weed seed and rhizomes, especially horsetail, terrible stuff to kill out. When used it needs more organic material than the original soil. For us, here, with heavy clay loam, I would rather use compost, manures, shredded leaves, rotted wood chips, sawdust or other organic materials in a garden. If making raised beds I might add some sand, no more than 10% by volume, otherwise the water just goes down. Shredded oak leaves #1, compost and manures for fertility....James
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Post by paquebot on Jun 11, 2015 3:28:37 GMT
Talk to any professional landscapers who know what they are doing and they may create Eden in a desert. That was my brother-in-law's job for most of his working life. He built golf courses. The last big one was in Texas a few years ago and every drop of soil had to be manufactured. Basic materials came from 3 states. The catch on such projects is that everything has to be consistent throughout the entire course and only one chance to get it right. He could also explain it in terms that 99.9% of us would not understand. I can't be certain but I think that the sand came from Louisiana and clay from Oklahoma or v.v. He liked my choice of Wisconsin River sand to convert my garden to something a lot better than I found it. (I had already learned that in high school ag class.)
Points to ponder. If a certain combination of clay, sand, and silt can exist in Nature, why do some think that Man can't duplicate it? If a certain combination is good in Nature, why is it bad if Man makes the same thing? Once it is blended and becomes one, there is no reason why it should become "un-blended" and become something else, either natural or manufactured. Flour and water is paste forever. Flour and water is bread forever. Flour and water is a cake forever. And the truth is more important than the facts!
Martin
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Post by gracielagata on Jun 11, 2015 13:03:30 GMT
jwal10- I haven't a clue where our dirt came from. But I could believe it has a good bit of silt in it. As for weeds in our dirt, I don't know the difference there. No horsetail, thank goodness, and I think the dirt I turned into the garden was sterile prior to me turning it and adding in manure and such, as it had been left under several layers of plastic and then river rocks, so plenty of time to be heat treated to sterility, I assume. Paquebot- that was my thinking- I have lived in southern CA, where everyone has golf course yards (what a water waste!), and I am sure those yards were not grass grow-able before that sod went down, so something had to have been done. I just found this page, and it looks to be rather helpful: www.ext.colostate.edu/mg/gardennotes/214.htmlI would say by the things they say to do that I have done- the squeeze test, and a bit of my remembering on the texture test, that my soil is likely silt loam, silty clay loam, or clay loam. I have to go play with it a bit more to remember better. I want to also do the jar test as well, which that site has very well written instructions for. |
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Post by Cabin Fever on Jun 11, 2015 14:28:37 GMT
Soil is so much more than a simple blend of sand, silt, and clay size particles. Yes, any monkey can blend these three ingredients together to arrive at a desired soil texture. But, texture is only part of the picture. As I attempted to describe in my earlier post, it is very important on how these particles of sand, silt, and clay are grouped together. This “grouping together” gives the soil structure or “tilth.”
For instance, I could blend together 40% sand, 40% silt, and 20% clay. This combination would give me a loam soil texture. Now if this loam soil texture had no structure, it would have very slow permeability. If we added some organic matter (or humus), and gave it some time with plant roots, soil microorganisms, freeze-thaw action, etc. this soil may eventually evolve into a loam having a granular or blocky structure. This loam would have a relatively rapid permeability. In other words, two identical soil textures having very different soil properties.
Another scenario would be two clay loam soil textures. One clay loam having a crumbly grape-nut like structure and another clay loam that was compacted into a platy or massive structure. One clay loam will have great permeability and aeration status and the other clay loam iwill be completely impermeable - two identical soil textures with very different soil properties.
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Post by paquebot on Jun 11, 2015 18:10:14 GMT
When one looks at all of the facts involved here, one can become very confused. A lot of emphasis is placed on soil structure or tilth. No-till crowd will say that tilling destroys the natural tilth and that's correct. The no-change crowd will say changing soil texture destroys the natural tilth and that's correct. Then both say that organic matter is the only way to go and that is contrary to what they preach. Organic matter is not going to get into the soil without being put there and that involves tilling and that in turn changes the soil structure or tilth. Can't have it both ways and be a normal garden. If something is missing from a stew pot, add it. No bad soil has ever been made worse by the addition of sand. It's a natural ingredient in soil texture worldwide and more is quite often better than less. Those who are serious gardeners in heavy soil have known that the rule for improving soil structure is 15% sand and 10% organic matter. The 15% sand is either sufficient for one time or can be adjusted in the following year or years. The 10% must be repeated annually. Unless it is comprised of a very high percentage of wood, its effectiveness for maintaining tilth is gone after one season. That's why it must be replenished annually whereas the sand is permanent.
This topic was covered a number of times on HT and nobody came up with a testimonial of how they turned their garden into a concrete patio by adding sand. All who added sand reported excellent results. There were times when we even discussed the proper sand to use for best effectiveness. In fact, according to some theorists who probably never turned a spade in a garden, my use of river sand is wrong but my brother-in-law said that what I had available was perfect. (From inside an oxbow so it was finer than what would be found on a sandbar.) My garden soil got better with every grain of sand added but will also admit to bringing home pure silt to lower the percentage of clay.
Garden centers around here sell sandbox sand and a lot of it. Just used some yesterday making two beds for planting bottle onion seeds. Soil is 99% prairie silt with little organic matter. Worked in about ½" of that sand the depth of a garden rake. This will assure that the soil remain loose rather than cake over, just the opposite of the alleged concrete factor.
In short, there's no sound reason why I may be the only person on HF with the capability of improving soil texture. Those living near flood-prone areas know that water can do that. If water can do it, no reason why the OP isn't capable of the same.
Martin
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Thanks!
