How to Garden With Sand in Your Yard

All plants need the right sun exposure, planting time, nutrition and spacing. They also require the right soil in their site, or they won't grow. Most plants do best with rich, nutritious soil that drains quickly, to keep them from sitting in water at any point. While loose, coarse sand offers quick drainage, it does not offer good moisture retention or nutrition. Sand is a malleable substance that slips and slides, so it provides additional difficulty during planting. If your yard is sandy, amend the soil with moisture-retaining, nutritious amendments for easier planting and better growing.

Garden fork/shovel
Organic compost
Sphagnum peat moss
Fertilizer

Instructions

- 1
  Amend your soil in fall, to rest until spring planting, or in spring for immediate planting. Work with the soil before the first frost of fall or after the last frost of spring to ensure warm, dry and workable soil.
- 2
  Mark out specific garden sites or amend the whole yard, depending on your personal preferences and plans. Working with one flower bed or gardening site at a time limits the work involved. Dig into the top 10 inches of soil to break it up. Remove any rocks and weeds.
- 3
  Lay 5 to 6 inches of sphagnum peat moss or organic compost on your sites, or combine the two in a 50/50 mixture as your amendment. Use a garden fork or shovel to turn the amendment into the tilled soil. These materials make the soil stickier and easier to use for planting, and maintain better moisture and nutrition than sand alone. Your soil should end dark, crumbly and rich.
- 4
  Broadcast balanced fertilizer like 10-10-10 or 13-13-13 over the amended soil. Use 1 lb. of granular fertilizer per 100 square feet of space to give the soil additional vitamins and minerals for the plants. Turn the fertilizer into the top 4 inches of soil. Water the site for 30 minutes to help the soil settle and the fertilizer sink in.

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Soil