Raised beds

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zappa1 Parkville, MD Jan 19, 2007

Hey guys, I was not sure where to post this question so I will try here.. I have been wanting to put raised beds in the front of the house and it might happen soon.. my question is I have an abundance of sand for an old swimming pool base and I was thinking of putting it either on the bottom below my weed guard or on top any suggestions??? Is it OK to use sand as a base.. I have to get it out of where it is as it is in the kids playground and all they do is track it in the house... my poor wood floors.... LMK Z

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ecrane3 Dublin, CA(Zone 9a) Jan 19, 2007

I probably wouldn't do that--I think you're better off filling the raised beds with some nice well-draining garden soil. I can't think of any benefit to putting sand in there, and depending on exactly where you put it, it could be a bad thing (for example if it's somewhere that the plant's roots are going to grow into). Or maybe I'm misunderstanding exactly what you're trying to do. The only thing I can think of to do with it is use it as a base if you want to build a paver patio or something like that (or offer it for free to someone else's who's building one of those if they come haul it away)

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keywest5 West Bridgewater, MA Jan 19, 2007

Hey Zappa,

I had some really heavy, clay, soil. I mixed in some peat moss, leaves, compost, loam and quite a bit of sand.
It really improved things a lot. Had good luck with that soil but had to stay with the compost etc.
If your soil is great & loose now your probably all set but if it's heavy at all I feel sand will help with loostening it up & give better drainage etc.
Good luck

p.s.
save some for summer --- for a nice, Hot, breezy day when your wife & daughters are sunning themselves w/ a lot of oil on.
Toss a few handfulls into the air & they'l think they are at the beach!!!
They will Love it!
You'll be a hit! or you'll get hit. ha

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ecrane3 Dublin, CA(Zone 9a) Jan 19, 2007

Be careful about mixing sand and clay though--if you have lots of organic material to mix in too then I've heard a number of people say it's worked really well for them, but if you just mix sand and clay without the organic material, then you can wind up with concrete!

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stosh507 Denver, PA Jan 20, 2007

Agreed on the concrete. If you mix sand and clay, you must have lots of organic materiel as well. I'm using mostly sand for a raised bed because I'm doing a xeriscape. I wanted serious drainage! If your raised bed is really high, the sand alone will be fine as long as the plants you intend to use don't try to grow their roots into pure sand. Of course you would put good garden soil on top of the sand.

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