Turface can be a real boon for turf areas that undergo steady traffic (dogs or other wise). One of the worst offenders to turfgrass is compaction. But you need to understand that no lawn can withstand steady hard activity. If you knew what sort of efforts go into keeping a golf course green 'up to par', you would understand. ;-) Many sports fields, by the way, are constructed (nearly artificial) soils. The Quick Dry is too fine textured a material to be useful for your purpose. Your goal should always be to do what you can to provide AIR spaces for roots. This is a fact whether you are discussing lawns OR containerized plants. Air spaces (pores) can be improved by the addition of coarse organic matter, too. It's all about porosity. As a matter of fact, you should always remember that OM can be the 'cure' for lots of soil related issues. It creates porosity within a heavy, airless soil but will also offer water holding capacities to a sandy soil. Al IS a guru. He is an incredible warehouse of knowledge and practical experience regarding soil and root systems, rhizosphere interactions, soil structure, plant growth and development, and much more. Turfgrass is simply not something that he has concentrated on, thus he was certainly not 'passing the buck'. ;-) Although Turface and similar products have been designed for use by the sports field industries, bonsai enthusiasts and other container growers have used it quite happily for ages. I've used Turface in my containers ever since I saw the beneficial properties during my days as a consultant for the golf course industry in SC. Once I began building container soils that were extremely coarse, my plants showed quite an amazing boost in vigor and over all health. Now, if I were given the choice of using ANY commercial potting medium or not having containerized plants at all....I think I would go plantless. It makes THAT much of a difference. I suggest that you do a Search right here in the Container Forum so that you can gain a little insight on the benefits of a coarse textured container medium. I'll even attach a link to get you started. I also suggest that you try the Lawn Forum for your turfgrass issues. There is always lots going on over there, and I'm sure that you will find the answers you are looking for. Some pretty crazy characters, too. Good luck! Here is a link that might be useful: Grab that beer and let's read....get one for me, too!

I am located just outside of Boston, MA. I too have some bumpy areas that I plan to level out this spring, and I have a soil test on its way out the door. I'm guessing the soil test is going to tell me I need more organic matter in the soil, and if so, I'll topress with a similar mixture as those recommended above. Assuming that is true, my questions is in regards to the timing of the topdressing vs the timing of the application of Halts. I'm probably still a week to a few weeks away from seeing the forsythia bloom, and thus my Halts application. What I'm wondering about is if the order of Halts vs topdressing has any implications? Obviously the Halts timing is more important, and needs to be applied at a specific time. But should I try to get the topdressing and top soil leveling dropped and spread prior to dropping the Halts in a few weeks? Do I need to give the topdressing time to get down into the soil before applying the Halts? Or, on the flip side, if I drop the Halts at the recommended time, but then a week or two later add a topdressing, would that topdressing on top of the Halts have any impact on the effectiveness of the Halts? Anyone have any thoughts on the proper timing in trying to get both Halts and a topdressing applied? I want to do both, but want to make sure I don't negate the Halts barrier. Thanks in advance.

I appreciate your response! I don't even have cable so I can't watch the Masters. :) Anyway, as seems to be somewhat common with new sod, the lawn is bumpy, especially in the back yard. My hope was to lay down a top dress to smooth out those bumps. In fact, I have already done that in one particular spot where water likes to collect and stagnate. My goal there is to build up the elevation a tad so that excess water more freely flows between my and my neighbor's house, along the depression formed by the sod sloping away from our respective houses. My plan was to add no more than 1/2" of top dress. I am prepared for it to take several applications to completely smooth out my soil. I am currently mowing with a rotary mower at 1.5". I'd like to go lower, but the bumpy soil is making that difficult. I have some slope to my property which means mowing the grass at a consistent height isn't easy. Depending on where exactly the mower is I can get taller or shorter grass. Once the lawn is smoother I can begin mowing at a lower height, probably with a reel mower. My target is 1/2" to 3/4" mow height. As far as aeration, I did the screwdriver test and it went in pretty much without a problem, so I think I'm going to forego aerating. I think my soil is not compacted. I performed a soil test several weeks ago. Based on the findings I applied sul-po-mag. Although the soil test showed high levels of nitrogen, I applied Scotts GreenMax for the iron content. My grass has greened up nicely as a result. I am having to mow every 3 days to keep it tidy. Next time I fertilize I plan on using a higher quality fertilizer and verifying it is slow-release; more research on my part here. The test results also mentioned that I need more organic matter in my soil. They recommended a good compost. I have yet to act on this particular finding, however. As for watering, last year I calibrated my irrigation system for 1" of water per week in all zones--as close as I could get, anyway. I adjusted and will adjust the system appropriately for changing watering restrictions. I verified watering amounts by using ground-level rain gauges. I have the system set for 50% of the regular program because it's not that hot yet. The one depression on the north side of my property is keeping me from fully watering one of the zones. Too much water collects in that depression (another reason I'd like to start to build that soil up a bit). The north face gets almost no sun in a couple of spots and as a result the bermudagrass is thin to non-existent. I haven't read the Bermuda Bible, but I did see it mentioned in several threads and I will definitely check it out. A comment or two on one of the threads here had someone say that using compost wasn't good for top dressing because it would eventually disappear. Although I did find that a bit odd (things don't just disappear!) I accepted it at the time. I can only absorb so much at one time, after all! If you've got other opinions on a top dress mix I'd love to hear them.

texas-weed - a question for you. I bought some sand at HD the other day, and they swear it's builders sand (course), but it's labeled "all-purpose" sand and it's next to all the masonry products. It's the only plain sand they had, so I figured if was for masonry mixing purposes. What do you think?