Moved into my new house and it’s on a sand pit not even grass grows. It’s not even near the beach.
I’m looking at getting some top soil but all the garden shops seem to only sell sandy loam soils in Melbourne.
Where can I find some decent soil to improve this sand pit?
Mulch but how about to grow grass?
You want to put down about 100mm of something like this before laying the turf. Good starter fert like 2Spec Establish or Noculate Starter and weekly to fortnightly applications of a good soil wetter like Hydrolink Advance and organics like Humic and Fulvic acid as well as seaweed or kelp (Seaweed secrets from Plant Doctor or Kelpro).
Plenty of golf courses are built on sand, can definitely grow on it with the right products and approach. Use stuff from Bunnings at your own peril.
Sand is better than dealing with rock or clay IMO.
I was looking at that today. It looks sandy? Do you think there’s any clay in it?
@zahalz: Why do you want clay? For water retention? You'll get that with good organics as well as using a good wetter.
@whitelie: Yeah for water retention. Organics seems to break down and disappear in the sand hopefully I’m wrong and wetting agents are they chemicals? I want to start a veggie patch etc. want to try avoid chemicals if possible. Might be good for the lawn though.
@zahalz: If you want to put it over everything, use the Plant Doctor stuff. All natural, chemical free.
They do a granular soil wetter but I would use the liquid, combined with Quantum H
for humic acid and Seaweed Secrets for seaweed/kelp.
They also do an organic, liquid fertilizer that I would alternate with the Quantum H in that mix but you won't need that until things are established really.
If it's a big yard, get a backpack sprayer, mix it up at the desired rate and spray away. If it's smaller, a handheld sprayer can work or even the hortex/hoselink sprayer that attaches to your hose can do the job, just have to calibrate it a bit according to your water pressure. The wetter is probably better sprayed and watered in but you can mix it all in and water it the next day. This will allow foliar uptake from the leaves before working down in to the soil.
Add organic matter - mix in manure and commercial compost for now and start a compost bin for the future. You can get coffee grounds from cafes at the end of the day if you can get some catering buckets to take it home with, if you want to make a big volume of it (add paper or straw or dead leaves etc as carbon matter too). Might take a few years before you have good soils. You can add water retaining crystals too, and keep a good layer of mulch on top to keep water in and also decompose gradually and add to the organic percentage of your soil.
Sounds like you may need clay and organic matter. For the clay ask pool companies what they do with what the excavate from pools as it may be cheap, but you will then need to get rid of the sand, which will cost you money.
For organic matter check out horse stables at race courses near you to see if they give it away, but you will need to leave it a few months as it needs to age before use and it WILL have seeds in it that will grow, so be aware that it's cheap for a reason.
We have a local horse stable that gives away free manure but you need to collect your own. Is there any way I can use it without waiting…maybe digging is deep?
It will not work if you dig it deep. New manure will kill plants or grass if not aged. Think of it as needing to compost like kitchen scraps, so you can pile it up behind some wire or boards and leave it for a month or two and in that time you should toss it a few times.
Lol. It’s not a nice beach sand….more like a dirty dusty sand.
Start planting heaps of plants. The leaves and branches that fall from the plants when they grow will break down and mix with the sand creating the sort of soil you desire…
Wouldn't that take many years?
The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the second best time is now
There’s a tree in the yard with normal soil around haha I was wondering why that part was nice
Get some soil improver from Bunnings or bentonite from a stockfeeds or nursery.
Add organic material and work into topsoil.
Plant a green manure crop.
Good luck.
where about in Melbourne that you'd get sandy soil? I'd like to trade it for my clay soil in a sec. It seems clay is everywhere once you go 10cm below ground.
South east. No joke down my street there soil is clay and half the suburb is sand.
I had a soil test done and there is clay 2 meters down.
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