Hello from western NC

Hello out there. Nice to make your acquaintance. After a long absence from gardening I've recently moved to a hill side community with problem soil and few plants other than grass. The soil is sand with a thin layer of top soil on top. Several of my neighbors have problems with erosion where the topsoil has been broken through and the sand has washed out. My new landlord is very nervous about any digging in my yard. He doesn't want erosion started here. I talked him into a small raised bed by promising not to disturb the topsoil. I only got him to agree to a 4'x4' raised bed so SFG is the way to go in order to get more bang for my buck. I was a big fan of Mel's original book back in the day. I'm learning more from the new edition and I love it.

I'm also a fan of some organic gardening techniques especially companion planting and water conservation. The local honeybee population is almost non-existent. I have to plant flowers to attract wild pollinators. Not only is the soil here of questionable quality the water is too. I'm on county water and it's so over-chlorinated that I can't stand it. If I don't like it I suspect plants don't either. Like SFG water conservation is a necessity for me.

That's my gardening activities in a nutshell. I look forward to reading about yours.

Lori

Hi Lori,

We moved here (FL) from WNC, where my husband grew up. I have to say, hearing of sandy soil in that region is kind of, well, . Where we lived, the problem was clay, Carolina clay, red stuff, that you couldn't get out of your clothes no matter how hard you tried. I never let my boys wear white because of it. Oh, and a hardpan about 6-12" below the surface.

Look forward to seeing your efforts, and sharing mine, as we get to know each other...

Same here. I've lived in NC all my life and this is the first time I've had to deal with sand. It's not sandy soil. It's just plain sand. There's not much organic material in it even down to a depth of about 3 feet which is kind of odd. I live near a lake now so maybe there is a connection.

Everywhere else I've lived there was clay, clay and more clay. In some places it was so hard it was more like terracotta.

Yeah, there must be a connection to that lake; wonder what the geological history is where you are now.

I know what you mean about the clay acting like terracotta...like a pot that won't drain!