My Homemade high power soil mix!

Hey Peter really impressed what you did in that thread, basically took out the entire yard and filled it up again with plants paradise! The back garden is beautiful to. My mix is just for one bed
but if I can get a digger down the side I might have a go at the whole lot lol!

 

Thanks Caveman. Life is an lot easier when you start an area from scratch. Having improved and now planted my back garden, it is very diffcult to work on. You can't dig much in because you will disturb the plants. I planted loads of bulbs - but they never seem to do much, because as I dig up plants and move them I am always upsetting the bulbs.

Newbie. I use a lot of sharp sand, because its cheap and does a similar job in many ways to Perlite and vermiculite. If you ask someone in the shop they should know. There are two main types of sand, which will be the cheapest there are and they will sell them in large quantities. Anything else, such as silver sand, is for yuppies. One sand is called sharp or concreting sand. And the other is called soft or builders sand or mortar sand. You can probably feel the difference if you push your finger into the bag. Soft is soft and squidgy, and sharp is much firmer. You can also buy it by the bag at at builder's merchant. They will know exactly what you mean.

Just found this http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav/nav.jsp?forceStaticLeftNav=true&action=detail&fh_view=detail&fh_location=//catalog01/en_GB&fh_secondid=9273145

 

Thankyou very much. I may head down my builders merchant then . Though i'm not sure where my local is .

What would i look for on yell.co.uk? Sorry for the really basic questions.

 

Just type in Builder's Merchant. Or better still ask a neighbour where the closest and cheapest one is.

 

Also called plastering sand, even better if you can get it is stone dust.

 

Cheers pete, and pro gard. But stone "dust" sounds too fine? :confused: This is half confusing.

 

I've just rang a local builders merchant asking for sharp sand. They do stock it and knew what i was an about but she said i couldn't use it to recondition clay garden, as it contained limestone. Does that sound right, and should i not use that kind if it has limestone in?

Ok, just to add, whats the difference between these sharp sands?
http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav/nav.jsp?isSearch=true&fh_search=sharp+sand&selected=products

And this really right? only �£1.34 for 25KG?
http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav/nav.jsp?action=detail&fh_secondid=9410894&fh_view_size=6&fh_location=%2f%2fcatalog01%2fen_GB&fh_search=sharp+sand&fh_eds=%c3%9f&fh_refview=search& ts=1207129967592&isSearch=true

Sounds fairly reasonable.

[ 02. April 2008, 10:58 AM: Message edited by: NewbieGreen ]

 

If its sharp sand, it is essentially all the same stuff. You will pay a different price/kg according to the size of the bag, if it is loose or in a bag, and depending on where you buy it. And yes that price sounds right. Remember it is very heavy - so you don't get much volume for your 25kg.

There is always the question of what else there is in the sand, and it will vary from place to place. I don't see why it should contain lime, pure sand is silica which is inert and there is a British Standard BS7533, which states that it should not contain more than 3% of other things. I have never bothered. You don't really want any lime in it, but I have used sand from several different places and my plants love it. It may be worth asking elsewhere. I am currently using sand from Focus, which seems to be fine.

 

Rightyo, i went to B&Q today (twice in fact), ended up getting proper garden sharp sand, big bag of organic matter and a bag of manure. Spread it all out today, but its still a bit wet. Tomorrow i'll probably start forking it in and digging some holes to put newspaper and bags of leaves i have around the garden.

Thanks for you help Peter.