Sand growing our veggies and herbs (family farming), Marlo, East Gippsland, Victoria, Australia 

Description: sand

Location: flat ,
coastal backyard, Marlo, East Gippsland

Values for this sandy soil
grows veggies and herbs for cooking from my own garden.

Managements for using this low fertility sandy soil to grow great foods:
– Collect horse manure from my friend’s horses and hot compost for three months
– Collect cow manure from surrounding dairy farms occasionally and pile up in a corner of my yard till it has rotted down.
– Annual purchase of mushroom compost mixed with soil.
– Pea straw or sugar cane mulch put over soil four times a year.
– Most garden beds are built up over cardboard and cotton sheets to keep out kikuyu grass (which the soil likes to also grow lots of!)

See more about challenges and managements of soils for family food production at these Soil Selfies:
– a permaculture urban family farm  experimenting with improvements for artichokes, in Glen Waverley, Victoria
–  a NSW rural town family farm food garden on sand at Werri Beach , NSW.
– a school food garden on sandy loam at Apollo Bay, Victoria

Credits: Lucia Smith of Marlo gives permission for her photos and information to be used under a (cc) license 2015
Editing and page created by Jeanie Clark, enviroed4all®, Warracknabeal, for use in education under a (cc) licence 2015

return to Soil Selifes location page

page set up 25 November 2015