Sand Bed #2

This bed is in full sun (absolutely no shade) and dryland plants like Eriogonums, Acantholimons, little dianthuses and several Echinocerus species have been very happy here. I have never done any watering of this bed even during our long summer drought in 1995.

This sand bed was built about 1989 and this picture was taken when it was about 3 or 4 years old. It is about 12 x 20 feet (3.5 m x 7 m) and the sand is 8 to 14 inches (20 - 36 cm) deep. The sand used was concrete sand (somtimes called builders sand around here), the kind used around here to make concrete. This is a coarser sand with a wider variety of grain sizes. After a few rains the surface of this sand forms it's own gravel mulch. This bed took about 16 tons (14,500 kg) of sand.