To me it's better. My clay doesn't drain very well so I have to amend it. I added soil from the horse pasture and at the time perlite because I didn't know about pine bark when I did my first beds. I'm not sure about the sand, but you can add pine bark to the clay to amend it. Not sure you would need the sand for in ground. Fred might can answer about the sand. I got my pine bark by the truckload. But if you only need a little you can get it at Lowes, Walmart, or Home Depot by the bag for about $2.50 each. Don't get the pine nuggets, get the quarter sized bark.
Well, these particular beds are the hybridizing beds so the DLs won't be in there permanently. They may get switched out for something else in a year or two. I have hard clay and this is just easier to fill a bed with pine bark & sand than trying to amend the ground. I also don't want to have to bend over to pollinate all those flowers. It's easier to not have to get on my hands and knees to plant or divide or what-have-you as well. My permanent beds in my yard are on the ground and anything I plan to have as a garden flower goes into these.
