Today on HGTV's Landscape Smart program, they had a white powder-like product that was said to be cactus-based added to sand to help make it work, as I understood it, rather like a polymer sand. They laid a stone patio with some gaps of several inches and filled the gaps with this mixture. Then pressed small stones, broken bits of tile, colored glass and the like down into it and claimed it would hold.

Anyone know of this and have any experience with it. I'm getting ready to lay a granite patio (face down not to be slippery) in plank-like strips with each strip being made of similar width, random length, parallel sided pieces scavenged from a counter installer. 1 stip might be 4" +/- 1/2" wide and the next might be 7" +/- 1/2". There will be some gaps here and there. If this stuff works, I might not worry so much and could add small stones. Also it would keep the soil in the gaps and out of the house. (The ground here is wet much of the time and dry dust is on occasionally a problem - also the patio will be in the shade most of the day in summer).

They were also using a clay sand in part of the garden for similar purposes that would tamp down and more or less stay down. We've got lots of clay in South Carolina 25 miles up the road, but I don't know what to ask for or how to get it.

David