My husband's family has a house on the beach in Old Saybrook, and since they know I like plants, they asked me to landscape part of it last year. When I say on the beach I mean literally that most of what I planted went into almost pure sand. I picked out some good hopefuls and a lot of CT natives (Beach Plums, asters, seaside goldenrod, etc.). Last fall I planted all of it with a bit of seaweed compost (purchased at a local nursery, not homemade) in each hole, watered it and hoped nature would help me out(no one would be back to do anything until May) It's May now and most of it seems to have survived the first winter (yeah!)

My question is, what do you guys find to be the best way to make sure sand plantings in that area get enough nutrients in the long term? Should I put in some slow release ferts? More compost every year?

Sorry for the VERY generic question; although I garden a lot out here in CA, it is not anywhere near a beach, so this sand idea is a whole new thing :) Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks a lot,
Maria

Great, thanks so much for taking the time! That was going to be my default plan anyhow, so awesome. The house is on a street named for the beach plums, so I'm very excited that those are doing well. We're not really there enough to have a veggie garden, but cover crops might be a good idea for us also. Thanks for the time and inspiration!

-Maria