Which is better?

Hey all, I was wondering what people thought would be best in terms of ground for outdoor garden. I’m growing in 20gal smartpots, outdoors lol. My garden is a 25’ x 15’ area of parched hard clay that is trash to grow in. Hence the pots. I got a shit load of mason sand I probably could layer the ground with, I also have a crap load of weed fabric, but I think the fabric would pull in extra heat that I don’t want. I constructed little lifts, about 2” high out of old grill grates, 2x2’s and zip ties to get the pots up off the ground, I also have a layer of crushed stone under those. I guess I was wondering if sand would be better at keeping the area dry, reducing grass and weed growth, etc
Any advice would be great

A layer of sand is just going to let the water through to the clay not keeping anything dry. You can find white weed barrier that wont add additional heat. Or panda tarp, white on one side black on the other. Put it black side down. I use it in the spring in my garden black side up. Heats the soil starting early weed germination but when they come no light so they die. Great weed killer.

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Ok I appreciate your reply, really just trying to find a use for 2.5 yards of mason sand lol

If you lay sand down, it will slowly sink down and start to break up the clay. I never did it to our yard but many in the local area swears by this. :+1:

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Yeah I was going to recommend this as well, but tilling it in would be much better. I’d also look up some amounts based on square footage because you can also go in the opposite direction really quick. But if your clay is that bad a few yards probably wont matter.

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Cool, I didn’t think of that. I wasn’t trying to break the clay up, rather I was just trying to have a nice even base that keeps the area dry to avoid mold in flower, while also getting this pile out of my driveway lol

I actually have my garden sitting on top of my septic leech field. So breaking it up isn’t a goal of mine. So I guess I’ll just go with the white weed barrier and call it good lol

You go down more than 3 inches in our soil and you hit extremely hard clay. So hard the water just stands on top of the soil where it needs to evaporate. :pensive:

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Lol, yeah don’t mess with that leech field.
Mine is in there somewhere!

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Haha
Looks good, wish I had that kind of clearance