12-01-2006, 01:12 AM
A well renown gardener we used to see years ago on his TV Garden show had a saying I often recall "Sand is the least back break but the most heart break". Meaning it is easy to turn with a spade but the plants don't thrive in it. In some areas here houses are built on what are actually ancient coastal sand dunes. The sand is 40 feet deep and you can stand there watering it until the cows come home but it just wont retain water and the plants die. Australia has traveled north from Gondwana land when it broke up millions of years ago splitting apart from Antarctica India Africa and South America. During its journey north parts of it have been under the sea three times so we sometimes see fossilised sea shells in the most unexpected places. The clay is a marine deposit containing millions of ancient dead bodies of plankton that is why it often stinks and the air takes on an unpleasant fishy smell when a trench is opened but combined with a little sand and lots of gipsom it becomes crumbly and less inclined to cake breaking down into a workable garden loam that readily retains moisture. So if you are not afraid of a bit of hard yakka attaining a nice garden is possible.
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