Good to hear, Kyla.
Something I will say as well (since I learned the hard way last year and we are both in 6b) is, be sure the sand you use is quite coarse or perhaps use it fairly sparingly.
I don't know how wet your winters are there, but last winter here was wetter than expected. I learned that the sand I used retained more moisture than expected and the losses over winter were many. For my soil mix this year I'm going lighter on sand (since for some reason I can't get really coarse sand here), and much heavier on pea gravel. I'll probably have to water more in the summer but hopefully I'll have fewer losses after winter.
