The shop vac sounds like a good idea. It's certainly worth a try.

Oh, that's awful. That's a huge worry. The shop vac might just work - especially if the ground is still frozen It's worth a try.

I honestly can't think of any other option. I hope it works.

Have a load of compost delivered and spead it/rake it over your yard. The lawn will appreciate the nutrients and the compost will bury the bits.

I was thinking about a lawn mower, but this might ruin the blades -- and you'd need a tougher attachment for the discharge than just a bag. Is there a wide sweeper attachment for the shop vac?

How large an area are we talking about here? You might do the pick-up and then ALSO spread soil on top.

I can't guess how large the area is. I know we have a powerful snow blower, and it throws the snow in a high, wide arc.

I can't imagine glass staying put under a new layer of soil. A hundred years ago or so, previous owners of this house buried their garbage out back. Although it's in a area that's largely undisturbed (unlike my front yard), over the years many of the glass bottles--often in pieces--have made their way to the surface. Soil erodes and migrates, and I'm thinking covering my present glass with compost or soil might end up compounding the problem. But thanks for the thought!

No wide sweeper attachment for the shop vac, but perhaps I can locate one to buy.

You can rent a magnet that is about 3-4 feet long, it is attached to a rope that you drag over your lawn. Use heavy duty gloves to remove what the magnet picked up.

Sid

I strongly urge you to call around to some landscaping companies and find someone with a piece of equipment called a Billy Goat vacuum. They are utilized to do heavy duty vacuuming of yards and parking lots.

Explain the situation about the shards of glass and plastic right up front, though.

Yikes, what a mess!

Sid, the magnet would be a great idea if I were picking up certain metals. But I don't think it will attract glass. I'll keep it in mind if we ever snow-blow tin cans. :-)

Rhizo, I'll check into that--thanks!

I'm glad that you'll check into the the Billy Goat. I'd have it done before too many rain or snow events go by....the shards can be pushed into the grass and soil temperarily and might be harder to suck up.

Those Billy Goats have very heavy duty bags that will be able to stand up to the sharp glass and plastic pieces. I can't think of another piece of equipment better suited for the job.

I wish I'd known about the Billy Goat. In 2007 we had a hurricane force storm here and it blew a wall of windows out of my semi enclosed front porch, across a side yard and some of it close to my neighbors front door, but reasonably large pieces. I picked up glass for days (wearing just surgical type latex gloves), and was finding bits here and there working in the flower bed under that window wall (which then became a solid sheet of safety glass just faux framed to look like individual panes) still 5 years later when we moved. DH was confident he'd gotten most smaller bits with our strongest bagging mower, and no accidents happened, not with us or the neighbors pets.

But I really sympathize with you, this sounds like smaller shards and I had no children playing there. Even though it was Dec, we had no snow to complicate things either. I wish you luck, let us know what you can arrange.

Thanks! We still have a foot or more of snow to melt, and tomorrow and Tuesday will be our only above-freezing days for awhile. Until everything melts I won't know where the glass landed. I found a mangled plastic bottle near one of the bird feeders a little while ago.

I'm sorry, and I certainly don't mean to make light of the situation, but I couldn't help but giggle a little picturing you "vacuuming" your front yard!

You might get a new yard out of this. Would it be easier to scrape off the top layer of dirt -- glass, plastic and all -- then start fresh with new soil and seed? Do you have a place on your property to dump what's removed, or would it have to be dump-trucked to landfill?

Maybe the snowblower could 'do it again', this time with an attachment to bag the debris?

Now don't laugh at this. I'm not visioning how big an area you need to 'vacuum'..but here's a thought. Using the largest tool you have w/your vacuum ...cut the leg of an old pair of pantyhose or knee highs. Place over the opening of the sweeper part & tightly wrap a rubber band over it. Then any pieces of glass you pick up will stay against the nylon-and over a trash can-place the sweeper part, turn off the vacuum & using a little whisk broom..brush the broken glass on the stocking, into the trash.