When starting off with bare gray sad sand, the task can be intimidating. Your big plans for what you would like your garden or food forest to look like seem hard to translate into reality. Even worse, the soft sand can heat up in the hot part of the day, inhibiting growth and germination of plants. This means that bought plants can wither or fail to thrive due to heat and water stresses.
More than my simple words, Geoff Lawton has already made some easy to understand videos about how to deal with the hot and dry.
So now you are wondering, what kind of plants should I try to use to mulch and shade my bare gray sand? The answer is, any kind of plant that you want. Some of the best plants that we use to cover and mulch the soil are mucilaginous, so we have to agree with Mr. Lawton’s video that they are the best for groundcovers. At Eat the Sand we use three varieties of Tradescantia, one variety of Aloe, and Perennial Peanut to cover the sand. We also grow two varieties of sage as herbaceous perennials, which are edible and attract pollinators.
If you think that you need some plant starts, please contact us, as we always have extra. These plants root easily.