Veggies for Sandy soil

 
Hello Everyone ,

It's been a long time since I've posted here but I've recently gone through
a riverchange (moved from Adelaide to the beautiful river town of Mannum).
The house we've moved into has a little veggie patch in the front yard which
gets full sun pretty much all day and the soil is quite sandy. My question
is what sort of veggies will grow well here, bearing in mind as of January 1
we have major water restrictions. Any ideas for what I could plant now and
then down the track what are good winter and summer veggies for this soil.
Or should I be trying to improve the soil.

Another question, is horse poo a good manure compared to chook or cow? many
people here sell horse poo for $2 a bag (the bag is huge) not sure whether
the poo is good for gardens or not

Cheers Luke

 wrote:


I have no experience with sandy soils, but root vegies generally do well in
sandy soil because it is easy to push through.  Carrots, parsnips, etc prefer
it.  


Definitely, because the down side of sandy soil is that it doesn't retain
water very well.


Horse poo is quite variable.  It is a 'cool' poo, unlike fresh chook or moo
poo, so it won't burn your plants and will increase the water-holding capacity
of your soil -- the flip side is that it isn't high in nitrogen, unless it
includes the horse wee as well (ie, is from a stables).
Some people here have said that horse poo from a freshly-wormed horse will
kill garden worms and other critters.

--
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)

"Parenthood is like the modern stone washing process for denim jeans. You may
start out crisp, neat and tough, but you end up pale, limp and wrinkled."
Kerry Cue

 
Chookie wrote:
<all good stuff>

I said that, but it may be just an urban myth. My main objection
to horse poo is that you get lots of weeds, because horse
digestion is pretty primitive compared to cow or sheep. If it
were cheap and readily available then I would probably use
it anyway. You could always compost it first.

 
hmm, without considering water restrictions, here is a list of veg which
prefer sandy soil (c/- john seymour): jerusalem artichokes, capsicum,
cauliflower, asparagus (that's a perennial, keep in mind), carrots, lettuce,
melons, okra, onions, peanuts, swedes, turnips and (not from j. seymour)
eggplant (apparently). in terms of water, sandy soil needs more of it &
there's no way around that. if i were you, i'd consider areas to get the
water from in order to water it (e.g. shower, washing machine rinse water).
or keep it small & therefore easily watered by hand. or install a timed drip
system. after it becomes loamier, it will need less anyway, of course. mulch
over the top.

Any ideas for what I could plant now and

i'd add my voice to "improve the soil". :-) after you've seen a bit of
improvement, you can start planting.

it needs organic matter. like farm1, i'm having good experiences using horse
poo & lots of it, (we have clay) & it's magnificent. ime, you can
sheet-mulch with it & there are no weeds... (mind you, i think our
supply-horse is mainly eating hay - therefore you'd expect few to no weeds).
sand does not hold moisture well, & humus from organic matter will improve
that. not immediately, everything takes time, but sooner than you might
expect. but the decomposition process needs water, too. no amount of dry poo
in dry sand is going to help much.


ya. get it.
kylie