Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Barbara Money <bmoney9@verizon.net>]

Speaking of the difficulties getting people to grow their own food, what 
about those folks who would like to but can't for whatever reason? My 
sister lives in a retirement community in west central Florida; they 
have small individual garden plots, but the soil is just sand, so 
everyone grows on raised beds. The only material they seem to be using 
is bagged composted cow manure from Home Depot, I suppose better than 
nothing. Scrounged organic material of any kind is essentially 
unavailable; the landscaping people cart everything away, and it is 
heavily sprayed in any case. There are no leaves. I can hardly imagine 
living in such a desert! My sister can't afford a lot of stuff, though 
she will have to buy the compost. She has limited access to the 
internet; what library materials might she seek out for good organic 
information in semi-tropical gardens? They apparently have nematodes, 
which the lawn people spray against, but she couldn't find any 
information for gardens.

Any suggestions I can send her way? Thanks!

Barbara M
Foster, RI

--
"Animals Are A Gift"