My Experiences Leveling My Lawn with Sand
jv982
13 years ago
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dchall_san_antonio
8 years agosu79
8 years agoRelated Discussions
Leveling lawn with sand
Comments (4)Oregon, huh. You are a rarity on this forum. A small garden tractor would really help to pull a large drag all over the yard. The drag is what will do all the leveling for you. What kind of grass do you have? If you have a broad mix of grassy grasses and broadleaf plants (aka, weeds), I'd be inclined to not spray anything first. It could be your weeds form a majority of the plant material. Most of the grasses growing in the PNW are not the type that spread. If you have any of the following, bermuda, Kentucky bluegrass, or bentgrass, then those will spread. Bermuda is usually a warm season grass but you might be close enough to the Pacific and far enough away from the Pacific to keep it happy enough. If you have rye (very popular in the PNW or fescue, then it is not going to spread all by itself. If you seed it now and get a hot summer, all the new grass will be stressed and may die. So there's that consideration. Before you start you will need a drag. A hand pulled drag looks like a 6-foot wide by 4-foot long piece of chain link fence attached to a 6-foot long 2x4. Attach each end of a 12-foot rope to each end of the board. When you drag that thing behind you over the loose sand, the drag will knock off the high points and deposit the loose sand into the low spots. Drag it every which way to get it as level as you can. If you rent a lawn tractor you can make the drag much bigger and go much faster. If you want to do micro leveling, drag a piece of fabric like a rug behind you. Doesn't matter which side is up. Here's how I would go about this. 1. Move all the dog toys away. 2. Fertilize. 3. Water deeply (as you always should). 4. Rent a mower and lower it all the way to the bottom setting. Mow and remow to get it low. Remove all the clippings. 5. Take delivery of several pallets of bagged masonry sand. With bags you can return what you don't use. 6. You and several of your husky friends spread the sand out. 7. Use the drag to level. 8. Water lightly to settle the sand and let it dry a little. New low spots will appear. 9. Repeat steps 6-8. You might need to let the sand dry a little before dragging. 10. Celebrate with beer and pizza for your husky friends. Do NOT release the beer before the job is finished and YOU are walking away from it. They will continue to help you if you hold the beer and pizza as final payment. Water it daily for 2 weeks unless you get rain. It is already fertilized, so water is all it needs. Mow when the grass is tall enough to mow. I'd keep the dog toys off the playing field until you are sure the grass is knitting in. It will be the roots of the grass that hold everything in place. The initial length of grass will be a factor in the amount of sand you need. If the grass was 5 inches high, you'd never be able to level it because the grass would be in the way of the drag. If it is 1/4 inch high, you can level it to a pretty fine degree. 1 cubic yard of sand will add 1/4 inch to 1,000 square feet. If your yard is 5,000 square feet, you'll need 5 cubic yards to raise it 1/4 inch. Moving all that sand around is why you need the husky friends....See MoreCan I use cushion sand to level my yard?
Comments (2)I've never heard the term...'cushion'. Does he say what kind of sand that is. Never use sand that is used for anything other than what is available as 'builder's sand...coarse sand', it has shapes and sizes that permit good drainage. Playsand, sandbox sand, beach sand, has no place for a garden. It harbors too much moisture. Definitely find out what the term means and then call a quarry or sand dealer and ask if such 'cushion' does anything for soil....See MoreWill I wreck my lawn with this sand?
Comments (2)A full yard will change the drainage of your garden unless you have a giant garden. If you do and you put it onto grass, you will never see it again. If you put it anywhere else, it will act like beach sand and remain loose forever....See MoreSand for leveling yard
Comments (14)Actually David Proud (dproud and then proudx) was the first in 2007. His first post has fallen off the edge of the Earth. You could use topsoil instead of sand if you could crush all the clods that come with top soil. Even a 1/2-inch clod will create a furrow that you want to go away....See Moretupelo_honey2339
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