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Builders sand ..

KlinkKlink Posts: 261
in Problem solving
I took out my wildlife pond (liner) a couple of months ago to put in a smaller preformed pond. I put down a lot of builders sand when i put the liner in twenty years ago and i'm now stuck with quite a lot of the sand mixed with the soil in the area where i want to put plants.
The whole reason for getting the smaller pond was for more flowers for bees etc. I've taken out as much of the sand as i can but now i'm not sure how to counteract the effect the sand will have.
Will adding sharp sand help break up the soil or will that be adding to the problem?
I'm about to empty one of my wormeries and wondered if that would help,worms and all,and i've several bags of compost waiting to go there too.
HELP! 

Posts

  • punkdocpunkdoc Posts: 15,039
    After a time [ / how long ], any badness in the builders sand is likely to have gone.
    How can you lie there and think of England
    When you don't even know who's in the team

    S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
  • KlinkKlink Posts: 261
    Ah,thanks @punkdoc . I don't want to end up with dead plants and a garden of concrete! :D  I'll crack on and get it sorted before the rain comes.
  • KT53KT53 Posts: 9,016
    Certainly after 20 years I would expect any nutrients and bad stuff to have leached out of the sand long ago.  I would just add compost to the soil/sand mix to enrich it.
  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    Klink said:
    Ah,thanks @punkdoc . I don't want to end up with dead plants and a garden of concrete! :D  I'll crack on and get it sorted before the rain comes.

    Use the winter rains to assess the drainage of the area, then when spring comes you can choose your plants accordingly. Lots of bee-favourites like a well-drained soil. And if you get a good crop of weeds in the meantime, that shows that it's not going to kill plants.
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • KlinkKlink Posts: 261
    Thanks @KT53. Five 120ltr bags of compost in the hole so far mixed with a bit of sharp sand. Fingers crossed  :)

    The drainage is good @J@JennyJ . The liners been out for a while now and all the recent rain has soaked away,no problem.There's still room for more compost and i haven't emptied the wormery yet so i'll see how it settles before planting anything.

    Thanks for your replies  :)
  • WibbleWibble Posts: 89
    My back garden is more builders sand and aggregate than soil to be quite honest. I dumped a ton bag of topsoil onto it when making the borders this spring (beds only made this year, dug up an appalling 'lawn' to do so). Everything has flourished, far more than I expected given the less than stellar substrate it went into. Drainage is also pretty bad as we are on heavy clay and a slope. 

    I wouldn't worry too much about your @Klink.
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