We recently had a customer call in with an interesting question.  They had a sand box in the backyard for their children, but the children were now grown and had just moved out.  This particular customer wanted to convert the area into a vegetable garden, but wanted to know the best way to get rid of the sand (or at least make it useful for planting).

Of course, straight sand will not support most plant life.  Depending on how much sand is currently present, you may want to try and remove some if possible (ideally leaving only a few inches of sand).  If you are not able to remove the sand and have more than a few inches to work with, you can still amend the soil (it will just take a lot more amending).  Your next step will be add top soil and compost (other organic material like manure will work too) and work it into the soil.  You will want to work it in a good one foot deep.  Once you have completed this step, add another layer of topsoil and compost and work it in about 6 inches of the layer that you had just completed.  This should make the soil viable for plant life.

You may want to start off by planting items that like sandy soil to start with before planting items that may not do as well in sandy soils (that is if you have a year or two that you can wait).  Taking a soil sample to see if you need to put back any nutrients is also a good idea.  Each year you will want to continue adding compost (or the organic matter of your choice).  The soil will continue to improve year after year.