Desert Garden soil, what should I use?

[bgodwin1987]

I am planning on making a desert type garden for some hardy cacti, yuccas, and an Agave parryi what type of soil is best? I thought about making the bed kind of raised then digging it out and mixing topsoil with sand and then put a layer of just sand on the top, them topping that off with some pebbles, what do you think? How deep should each layer be? and what type of sand should I use? Would play sand be ok? My soil here is a red clay type soil thats pretty heavy but has some sand and fine gravel mixed in with it, it doesn't drain that well though. any help would be appreciated, I have very little experience with cold hardy succulents.

[DesertZone]

I would call a gravel pit and see what they got. Ask about reject sand, might get a whole pick-up load for $20-40 bucks or it might even be free. Or ask what a pick-up load of 1" road mix would cost?
Reject sand/crush is good stuff for desert plants. It is what is left over from when they crush stone and wash stone/gravel. Than mix in a little potting soil, if you want? I never do.

[lucky1]

Bryce, good tips from Aaron.

Since you've got clayish soil as a base, I'd definitely use a raised bed.
And location is everything...if you have a high water table or get lots of rain, locate your succulents under house eaves, on a south side.
Succulents should be dry-ish going into Fall/winter.

Will look forward to seeing pics of your work.

Barb

[TimMAz6]

We don't have clay in my area so I don't know how good or poor of a material that would be for south west plants. I recommend you create a small mound at the stem of each plant so water will never puddle near the stem. I used a 50/50 mix of sand/peastone for my bed.......probably not needed but it seems to work. The depth of sand varies but it's about 10" deep. I covered the sand mix with a layer of peastone. I'd get a darker colored stone too since this will warm up more in winter than whitish colored stone.

[hardyjim]

DO NOT PUT SAND OVER THE TOP.


It acts like a mulch and keep s the soil wet underneath-trust me,I found out the hard way!


I had to dig out the whole bed,all around every plant and add the limestone rock to the
bottom and then the soil mixture-it is hard work but- way easier if you have not planted everything!!!!


If you want to do it right you may want to dig a 2' deep pit,line in(on the bottom) with
limestone rocks a few inchs high and then put in your soil mixture.


Thats the hard way but you can do the same thing basically my making a mound.


Only problem is if you are growing trunking(tall) plants you will need to make a much bigger(taller) cover.