The percolation test is quite simple -- Dig a hole about 1 foot deep. Pour it full of water and wait... Observe whether it soaks in... Then, once it has soaked in -- fill it up full of water again and let it soak in again.. If it all soaks in within a few minutes -- you may be draining too fast and the grass dries out too fast... If it doesn't drain within a day... you have other problems.... Sometimes clay soils will soak in great on the 1st round, then will become impermeable after the 2nd or 3rd round -- as the clay saturates... It can also help point out problems in the subsoil like pure coarse sand, big rocks and hard-pans... (Gosh, my lawn drains fine here, but doesn't drain at all over there... I wonder why?) The 2nd test is outlined on here somewhere -- but it is to determine your soil makeup.. You take a mason jar about 1/3 full of dirt (No rocks and sticks).. Fill it mostly full of water.. Shake it up really good and let it sit overnight... Then shake it up really good again and let it sit again... It will separate out into various layers.. Sand and rocks on the bottom, silt in the middle, clay near the top, and light organic material on the top or floating... You then measure the layers with a tape measure and it tells you the soil makeup... These tests will help lead you in the direction of which amendments will help vs which ones will hurt... If your soil is all sand and already drains too fast.. Adding more sand won't help anything... but adding a little Clay would help quite a bit... and vice versa. Thanks John

Amanda, What kind of grass do you have? If it is bermuda grass, it likely will spread and cover the sand for you in all but the heaviest shade. I think rose moss would grow there, but sand is very fast-draining and sterile, so I don't know how much you'll have to water and fertilize to keep it alive. In our narrow band of really, really sandy soil, the plants that do best for me are the ones that have really large roots like four o'clocks and cannas or those that tolerate a lot of dryness like gomphrena. You mention full to partial shade, so I think four o'clocks (and maybe cannas) would do better than full-sun flowers like portulaca, purslane, or gomphrena. Pure sand is a hard material to grow anything in because it doesn't hold water well at all. Are there any remains of dead plants left in that sand to indicate to you if something previously grew there? We have a lot of wildflowers in our sandy soil, but they are not long term....instead, there is a succession of bloom from many different types of wildflowers that each bloom for a few weeks. Some plants that probably thrive in sand that is partially to fully shaded include pink evening primrose, purple Indian Painbrush, Meadow Pinks (bloom in our sand in April-May), Lazy Daisy, Prairie Verbena, Blackfoot Daisy, Mexican Hat, Greenthread Daisy, Yellow Plainsman, Cutleaf Daisy, and Yellow Native Zinnia and Sleepy Daisy. (Most of those are native wildflowers found in sandy soil.) Gazania daisies might thrive in the sand but I don't know if they'll get enough sun to bloom. There's a native ground cover here in southern OK called partridgeberry that thrives in sand in dry shade but it often gets crowded out by less-desirable plants in moist sand. Two native grasses that do well in dry sandy soil are buffalo grass (more for full sun though) and inland sea oats which is lovely in a natural setting but might not look quite so good in the middle of a back yard. If you have bermuda, though, it would crowd out both of these. Do you have a long-term plan for what you want to do with the sandy area? Dawn

I would maybe do a soil sample in front and back to see if there is something different. Maybe lime the front? Or maybe the drainage is front to back so the front dries out and the back doesn't? We have that issue in our yard and during the drought the front looked like heck while the back was ok. IMO Bermuda is hard to keep weed free without a service. We tried it and it was a disaster. We wound up using more chemicals than the pros used. Now we have the service and it's a lot better.

I’m not sure what “child safe” means, but it might be worth investigating the source of the rubber mulch, as small children tend to put things in their mouth and spend a lot more time (than older and taller folks) literally in the mulch. Not sure what a child could be exposed to. Ditto for chips/gravel. We are in NE and school playgrounds are required to use a certified “clean” wood chip that costs about 2-3x more but it is screened and certified to be contaminant-free. It could probably still be a concern if ingested. Gravel dust is also probably not ideal to be exposed to. Good luck.