Enriching sandy soil

Magical Meerkat

Hello,

We bought our house in August and are starting work on the garden. We have bought a beautiful white birch tree to plant in one corner. 

Unfortunately after starting to dig we have found a buried pond, with lots of rubbish thrown in. 

We are slowly digging out all the bricks, concrete, wires, glass and the disintegrated liner! We still haven't found the bottom yet. 

Whilst removing all this crud, I've noticed the soil is basically sand with added builders sand from the pond. There are no worms at all and the soil is very poor. 

Should we just buy loads of compost and manure and mix it with sandy soil? It's currently like digging on the beach, in wet sand. 

Any help would be great 

fidgetbones

Lots of well rotted farmyard manure. Pig, cow, horse  or sheep, it doesn't matter.  It helps to hold the water and the nutrients.

Then add rock dust if you can get it to add essential micronutrients.

Start a compost heap to keep building up the fertility.

Dirty Harry

You'll be surprised how much you add and how sandy it still appears. It does need an awful lot I've found. I put down a lot of multipurpose compost and manure when I made my borders.

Can usually get decent multi-buy deals on both.

fidgetbones

If you know some local stables or a farmer, it is cheaper by the tipper load.  I paid £40 for a pile 1.5m  deep and covering 6m by 4m.  It lasted a couple of years, second year it was wonderful stuff.  No smell, looked like peat.