What do you want to grow there?

Seedling roses.

Hi- thanks for the suggestion- yes I'm sure it needs organic material. We get heavy rains here in winter that probably leach a great deal out of the sandy soil. Fortunately my compost bin appears to be very productive.

Sandy soils do not hold onto any nutrients. The very large spaces between the particles of sand allow any water to flush any nutrients out and that is why sandy soils need organic material, to hold both nutrients and moisture in the plants root zone.

kimmq is kimmsr

Raised beds, heavily amended, for the roses.

Hugelkultur beds have been very productive in my sandy soils. If I had the time and energy all my beds would be Hugels.

Thanks all- @lazy_gardens, these are raised beds, but have been neglected for some time.

@gjcore- I'm fascinated by hugelkultur and would love to try it. I do have a few substantial piles of wood lying around. The hard part for me is managing the aesthetics. All the hugels I've seen look like fairly abrupt berms on the landscape, and I'm going for something more gentle. Maybe I just need to see the right examples.

I know what you mean about aesthetics. The pictures and diagrams on the internet are frequently steep mounds. My hugel bed looks like a side-less raised bed except for a small brick wall on either edges where I have pathways. This below is 3 years old and last winter I had a compost pile on top. A lot of the compost got mixed right in a couple months ago so it has added some height recently though it has settled quite a bit. The poor pepper plants were blasted by 3 inches of large marble size hail 2 weeks ago but are almost all coming back. Originally I placed large rocks along the sides which I thought would stabilize the edges. In retrospect they probably were not needed and I have removed most of them.

http://i626.photobucket.com/albums/tt344/gjcore/20160607_072524_zpsh4hw1kis.jpg

My mom grew roses, almost 80, now, and still does. Her "secret recipe" was the cat litter box, the fish my father brought home from drift boat fishing, and the coffee grounds from 5 pots of coffee a day -- with occasional additions of seaweed from the beach, and ashes from the grill. Her roses are gorgeous -- but the cat died last year, and she says she needs another one. Not sure if it's for the companionship, or the litter box!!

"PETA Protests at Home of Elderly Woman Over Animal Exploitation: Cat Held Captive for Poop Production. Film at 11."

Lol! Cracked me up TC. No, any cat they have is pretty spoiled rotten by my folks -- and their dog who lets the humans know when the cat wants in, out or if the cat's food or water is empty!