Need help with flower beds

[buffett]

I know this is not commercial landscaping related, but I wanted to get a professional landscapers opinion on my question.

Our house is on an inclined lot and we have a stone retaining wall in front of our house that stands 3-4 feet high. The stone wall comes out 4-5 feet from the front of our home and this is what makes up our front flower beds. When the builder built our house they filled this area with sand and topped it off with mulch. The plants that were planted in the flowers beds don’t seem to be getting enough water. I had a couple of landscapers come out and they gave bids to pull the existing plants and dig 1-2 feet of the sand out of the flowers beds and fill with Pro Bedding Dirt. They said that sand retains no water and can be harmful to the plants. This soil for the beds is full of sandy loam (the silly putty looking clay).

Based on what these landscapers are telling me, is this necessary? The bids they gave to do this were real high that is why I am asking. I can post pictures if you need me to.

Thnaks for your help.

[nlminc]

I would say the locals gave you some sound advice. Sand will not hold water, leaving the plants root system searching for it. It's pretty common for builders to pull that stunt. Sometimes they hire a landscaper and have them install the plant material. Usually this is cheap money, volume work making the co. installing the landscape looking for corners to cut. By the time you settle in your new home they are long gone and landscape problems start to occur.

How much money do these landscape companies want to fix the problem? How many sq. ft. are we talking for the beds?
I have no idea what the going rate in your area is for soil. I recently moved from MA to GA and for example....sand in MA is about is free-$5.00/ton here in GA it's $22.00-30.00/ton. Loam in MA is can run you anywhere from $11-17.00 /yard, here in GA it's about $30.00/yard.

hope this helps

Chris