I just moved to Beverly Beach, MD and am 250 feet from the Chespeake Bay. The view is lovely, but the soil is extremely sandy!!! What do I do to help my soil retain water? Can you recommend any soild amendments? I am very new at this and would appreciate any suggestions that you may have. Thank you!

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2002

Answers

Hi Ellen,

One word -- COMPOST! Keep working at creating it and ammending with that. Additionally, if the area that you are gardening in is not too large, you can purchase compost in bags at most garden centers. For larger requirements, check around. Mushroom farms are great sources of compost. They generally raise several crops and then start with new. Their "expent" growing material is great as an ammendment.

As a personal preference, I garden without the use of chemicals. Whenever anything is brought into our gardens, I check to make sure that it is organic.

I hope that this helps.

Mike D. ======= Victory Seed Co.

-- Anonymous, June 21, 2002