Amending soil using sand and opinions on some new products

[matchynishi]

I'm a fairly new gardener, and on a small budget, and I have a fair amount of work to do to work up the beds this year! My yard has extremely clayey soil, and is weedy, so some of the beds that weren't used over the last year have weeds in them. I have some theories that I want to try this year, and I wanted to run by the folks here for opinions

Comments

[matchynishi]

I don't have pets, so thankfully none will be poisoned if I use coir! So apart from that issue, it should be fine to work with, then, huh...

Wow, you do have it worse than me! I have a veritable forest of weeds in the backyard... I had this giant dandelion sprout through gravel last year, it was at this little-visited corner, and by the time I saw it, it was about 5 feet! o_o

[matchynishi]

You do have a point about the expense! So you think I can add mulch directly to the soil before adding the compost, instead of the sand or the Beatspeat coir thing? I guess the mulch would eventually decompose, too.. but I'll have to add *something* because I don't have as much compost as I need, and the leaves and stuff I've saved aren't quite enough for my beds... :( I suppose there is always the option of adding more newspapers...

lol, hope your pokey things get killed off successfully!

[matchynishi]

Yeah, sheet-mulching does seem like the way to go! I'll take your advice on concentrating on the priority areas first... though I need to make sure I don't abandon the others, will definitely mulch 'em, at least... don't want another forest of weeds this year ;aljskfa.

I read about dealing with a persisting weed - cut it off at the base - root area, then pour boiling water on it. If the first time didn't work, another time will do the trick, apparently, though I haven't tried it out for myself...o_ob Although you'd have to make sure you don't cook any nearby plants that you don't want to!

[matchynishi]

oooh a larger area filled with pokey stuff does not sound fun. D: I hope you work something out, maybe a combination of all the plans.... Clover! I love clover, I want to eventually introduce that to the lawn, along with some other groundcovers, but well, those plans are for another year. ^^ But I guess if you have any veggie groundcover-like sprawling plants, they might outcompete the weeds...Let me know how it goes! :)

That is an excellent point. :|b

[rainarana]

We're in an area with lots of rocks, Tennessee, and avid scavengers. We built all our raised bed dry-stacking rocks that we got for free. I'm currently edging the walkways with more scavenged rocks as well. That's a good idea, upcycling box springs. People dump all manner of bed parts around here.