Solution for dry sandy garden

[JacksonWong]

The front lawn in front of my house is dry sandy soil which is very difficult to grow any plants.  The sand is dry & sandy and the wind often blow the sand onto pavers on the driveway and entrance to the house. We have given up on gardening and currently trying to find a solution.  Which of the 2 options below is the best to keep sand & weeds away.

a)Put plastic bags or membranes over the sand patches and lay pebbles stones on top.  This will keep sand & weeds away

b)Lay artificial lawn.  This would still require more maintenance than 1 above.

see 3 photos. Look forward to your response.

[mich1972]

Morning Jackson !!!!! The dreaded sand ....... 

This is just my opinion if this was our garden. Don’t even bother with a lawn. I would turn this land into a Native garden, with different native shrubs , native grasses and ground covers. Great way to bring in the birds and pollinators. 

Building up the soil with a specific Native planting mix. Then mulching after planting. 
This might be something you might want to think about as there are so many tough hardy beautiful Australian Native Plants available. Maybe doing it in the cooler months to start it off. Good luck with it 😊🐝

[MitchellMc]

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @JacksonWong. It's fabulous to have you join us and many thanks for your question.

It's great to see you've already received a helpful reply from @mich1972. As she has mentioned, there are many Australian native trees and shrubs that thrive in sandy soils. Some of those species include Grevilleas, Acacias and Banksias. Perhaps you could consider laying weed matting down and then cutting holes in it to plant some natives through. You could then lay pebbles over the area to cover the matting.

Another option is to build some raised garden beds and fill them with a suitable potting mix for the plants you wish to grow. For inspiration have a look at our Top 10 most popular raised garden beds. You should also find these step-by-step guides useful: How to build a simple raised garden bed by @Adam_W and How to fill a raised garden bed by @Noelle. You could create a row of raised garden beds across the front of the property, starting at the letterbox. Once you've filled those with some attractive plants, you could then proceed with either of your ideas behind it.

Let me mention some helpful members @Aussie-Garden and @Yanick to see if they have other ideas.

Mitchell

[Yanick]

Hi guys,

I completely agree with @mich1972.

You can’t go wrong with a native garden. My only thing to add would be to ensure you dig a good distance deeper and wider than the chosen plant’s root ball, and fill with a native mix to give the shrubs/trees a strong foundation to establish. Once the garden has reached that phase, native plants require very minimal care and would provide some privacy for your front windows.

As far as suppressing weeds and sand from blowing up, you could use a larger sized hardwood mulch as mentioned previously. 

[mich1972]

Absolutely agree with you @Yanick 🌿😊

[mich1972]

Thank You @MitchellMc and I agree with you 🌿😊

[redracer01]

Hello @JacksonWong 

May I suggest turning it into a zen garden. So you will not have to battle with soil conditioning. Below is my suggestion.

Cheers,

Red

 

[JacksonWong]

Dear all,

Thank you for the valuable suggestions.  Here is my plan

I will lay weed mat over the approximately 40 m2 area.   Cover 70% area with larger size hardwood mulch as suggested and maybe 30 %  stones/pebbles. I will leave out timber sleepers, pavers, landscape stones, raised garden beds or planter boxes as garden barriers in the meantime to see whether it will keep the sand blowing onto driveway.  Timber sleepers or pavers is perhaps the easier option but it probably looks odd for front lawn.  

What do you think of my plan above?

[MitchellMc]

Hi @JacksonWong,

I apologise for the delay in my reply. That sounds like a fantastic plan which you can build on it as you go. Your biggest issue is containing the sand and covering the area with weed matting will do that.

Please let us know how you go and keep us updated on your progress.

Mitchell