Your sand garden can be difficult at times, but don’t despair! Thanks to these long lists of “The best plants for sandy soils” you can create a beautiful garden with blooming flowers. The key to success in your sandy soil garden is to understand the properties of this type of soil and to choose plants that have adapted to it.
Instead of fighting nature for plants that don’t want to live there, you can relax and enjoy the beautiful garden with minimal care.
Advantages of Sandy Soils
The relatively large particles that form the sandy bottom are responsible for the easy flow, just as the water flows easily between them. Working with this loose consistency is also easy, and only a few plants will struggle to embed roots in sandy soil (provided they have enough food and water).
The nutrient-poor soil is ideal for growing wildflowers.
Disadvantages of Sandy Soils
Due to the free drainage of this soil, not much drought is needed. Therefore, the floor is not fully saturated. If you do not opt for plants with high drought resistance, you often need a watering can and a sprinkler in the summer.
Sandy soil cannot retain water and contains only a few nutrients. Extra fertilizers can be washed quickly.
Plants for Sandy Soil
If you are an avid gardener and want to feed and water your plants well, there are no serious restrictions that should be grown on most sandy soils. The perennials include:
Lavender
It is hard not to love lavender. It comes from the rocky, dry hills of the Mediterranean and not only tolerates sandy soil. This requires perfect drainage of sandy soils. We plant in the sun and enough water to fix the roots. Lavender is particularly effective in long rows that can be used as low edges of the garden.
Artemisia
These dwarf perennials have gray leaves, characteristic of many of the most drought-resistant plants. The leaves are finely cut and incredibly smooth; when it moves, a wonderful aroma is released. Artemisia is mainly deciduous plants, as the flowers of most varieties are invisible, but they give perennial plants a unique texture and color or can be used as ground cover.
Rosemary
Rosemary is another well-known herb that blooms on dry sandy soils. After planting in late winter, when most other plants are still awake, you never need water and flowers. Try one of the extended varieties, like Irene Forest Lockwood, to use it as sandy soil.
Sedum
Currently, an incredible variety of sedum is available in nurseries. They are succulent and adapt naturally to sandy and dry soil. Most are small tracts of land that form large rocky plants. There is also a larger variety called Autumn Joy, which is a good option due to the extremely late flowering.
Annuals and Bulbs
Living in a sandy area does not mean sacrificing colorful plants in your garden.
Salvia
The annual salvia gives summer beds a strong touch of color: scarlet red, dark purple, and electric blue are available. They grow quickly to a meter or two in height, depending on the species. The flowers last for weeks, but after they disappear, hold them and bloom again until the first autumn frost. They are relatively drought-resistant and are loved by hummingbirds.
Giant Alliums
This is an unusual specimen to frame the flowers: it is closely related to onions, but it is grown for its huge purple pompon flowers that grow on a single stem, one to three meters above the rare leaves. The giant allium blooms year after year with little care in sandy soils, making them a good option for partial natural seeding.
Sweet Alyssum
This houseplant is loved by butterflies and scents of honey. It grows on sandy soil and there is a risk of sowing cracks in the pavement, giving the color of hard and hot concrete. The sweet alyssum creates a layer of carpet ten to fifteen centimeters high and stretches for two meters. Pink, purple and white variants are available.
Shrubs
Shrubs are an excellent option for privacy and flower varieties are wonderful additions to any sandy soil garden.
Butterfly Bush
Butterflies spread through the elongated purple inflorescences of this vertical deciduous shrub. The butterfly bush adapts to most types of soil, including sand. White and pink flower varieties are also available.
Siberian Pea Shrubs
This is probably one of the most difficult plants in the world. As you can imagine by its name, it is extremely resistant to cold, but also tolerates light and sandy soils. Siberian peas reach a height of 10 to 20 feet and a width of 5 to 10 feet, depending on the variety. It is leafy and offers a splendid view at the height of summer, thanks to its pale yellow flowers.
Rose of Sharon
Smooth plant for difficult conditions. Sharon Rose produces hibiscus flowers two to three centimeters in late summer: pink, purple and white are the most common colors. On sandy soils, provide enough water to support lush growth and encourage abundant flowering.
Trees
Many landowners focus on trees, regardless of the type of land.
Silk Tree
The fast-growing deciduous tree, also known as mimosa, is one of the best in sandy soil. It usually grows to around 10 meters, which is not exactly what is commonly considered shade, but provides shade and does not last for decades, usually five to seven years.
Black Locust
It is a tall, vertical deciduous tree and grows extremely fast, even in sandy soil. Fragrant white flowers grow from bare branches, cut autumn leaves, and decorative pods. The purple coat is a popular variety with purple flowers instead of the typical white.
Eucalyptus
All eucalyptus species are native to Australia, a continent with a disproportionately large amount of sandy soil. There are many varieties, but most are huge shadows that grow quickly, some reaching heights of up to 50 meters. They are always alive and emit a pleasant evergreen fragrance
Final thought
The best way to improve sandy soil is to retain moisture and other benefits, such as maintaining nutrition. In that regard, adding compost or coconut is a great way to improve the soil in general.
Burying manure or other organic matter near new plants provides moisture retention and nutritional benefits.