Sandy soil certainly has its advantages. You can start spring planting earlier than most people, for the soil becomes workable much sooner.
And even during a wet spring, the water doesn’t stand in pools, rotting the seeds and choking the air from the roots of your plants. It isn’t wasted in the runoff, either, but goes right down into the ground.
That’s right. Rain goes straight down to the roots—and keeps on going unless you find some way to hold it where you want it!
Solutions To Keep The Moisture
Sieve-like soil can be a serious problem in a drought when there just isn’t a drop of water to spare.
Mulches
Mulches are the answer for established plants, but what can you do to keep moisture at the roots of newly set-out shrubs and trees? My solution: Put a lining in your sandy soil.
Using Sod
When you dig the hole for your new plant, make it deeper than usual, and carpet the bottom with all the small, disease-free garden trash you can find. I even saved the sod that I lifted to dig the hole and overturn it in the bottom of my hole.
Once I planted a rosebush in a new garden, where there wasn’t any sod for this important first layer. Nearby I spied a clump of weeds. Out it came, dark, rich topsoil clinging to the roots, and into the hole it went, bottom up. Worked fine, too.
After The Sod
I search in the garden’s corners for hidden leaves and small twigs—no thicker than a pencil. In this collection, I add to the sod, packing it solid to make a mat about 3” inches thick for the average shrub.
A few inches of soil, with compost added, follows next. Now water, right to the brim. As it drains down through the lining, the water fills any air spaces with soil. When the water disappears, I add more soil. I want at least 2” inches of it between the shrub and the trash.
I plant the shrub an inch higher than it grew before to allow for settling, and give it another soaking to ensure the air spaces are filled.
Give the newcomer as much extra water as possible the first year, and you can be sure that the moisture will stay where it should do your plants the best.
44659 by Mary S. Hagerstrom