Selfsufficientish.com

Yeaterday morning at work I was digging up silt dumped by the floods to allow vehicle access to a site. The silt is sandy and mixed with lots of dead twigs. Feeling rather ish I bagged up a couple of bags. I want to grow a few carrots on my clay allotment. Was thinking of digging deep circular holes and filling with a mix of river sand/compost/topsoil. But search on the internet no one talks much about river sand and gardening. Is there a reason river sand should not be used?

I would guess it's not commonly used because very few people would have access to it.

One thought that does spring to mind is - what's upriver(?) from where you collected it? Most stuff being washed down will be deposited at the sides in areas like where you collected it. So have a look see - I wouldn't for one second suggest that any businesses would break environmental law and dump stuff in the river - heaven forefend . But it might be worth knowing what's there.

Generally speaking, silt deposited by flooding makes the soil more fertile - you can ask the Ancient Egyptians all about that. But, as GA points out, they didn't have sewage works to make it all a bit risky. Find out what's within a mile or so upstream - if there's nothing untoward, I'd try it.

Mike