Please allow me to explain some facts about the different types of sand. As a contractor and someone who has worked in a concrete plant you better know what type of snd you need for the job you are doing. With that said lets began. Sand is either dug up in a quarry or dredged from a pond, lake or a sand quarry that they hit a spring in and filled with water. All commercial sand is washed so it can be graded for size and type. You have to go out and dig up your own if you want to get unwashed sand ( which is not recommended for landscaping ) to be used as fill sand or what we call sandbox sand. First thing to fall out of the washer is mason sand. Next is concrete sand followed by fill sand which contains some clay. Next is gravel base and is made-up of lots of clay and small gravel.This is what you typically find on ball diamonds and clay tennis courts or as a base for a gravel driveway or path through your garden. It can be packed down so hard you would think it was concrete with a colored dye in it untill it rains. Dogs, cats, kids and husbands get in quite a bit of trouble when it rains because of this stuff. Next is pea gravel. This can be used to cover the gravel base or partly fill holes like lateral lines where you need good drainage or placed under downspouts to keep the water from making a canyon of you lawn and it gives it a decorative look. Just remember to use something to keep the gravel in place or your mower becomes a machine gun when you mow around It. A lot of people use it in flower beds and around the base of trees too for decorative look. Rock gardens look neat and pea gravel mixed with river rock works well for this. Next comes river rock. Used as I just mentioned in place of the pea gravel ecept not on lateral lines or sewer pipes or any other underground lines and pipes. Although it does work well for drip irrigation or soaker hose. Then the last is river stone. Good for decorative landscaping and filling in wash outs or anywhere you need the water not to erode the ground beneath them.

Such damage doesn't point to either moles or voles and I woudl hesitate to use something to attack them when in doubt. Why not just trust that the damage is not severe and instead of trying to determine what animal might have caused the damage just go ahead and fix the problem. Do a raking of the lawn, remove the bumps, spread the loosened soil and water it. Perhaps water more the areas of the bumps, see if that forces to the surface which might be worm damage. Then in the fall do an overall laying of 1/2" of compost or topsoil and do your final fertilizing.

If you have time, mow as short as you can before they aerate and rake the clippings (at all other times, mow higher and leave the clippings). The idea is to increase the seed-to-soil contact. It'll also let you delay mowing while the new grass gets going. If your lawn hasn't started growing yet, that's a moot point. Right now, the soil is probably still moist from the snow, and we'll still be getting rain and snow for a little while, so this is about the only time (other than dormant seeding) that you can get by with seeding and not watering several times a day to get the seeds to germinate. You don't want to let the seeds dry out completely, so keep an eye on conditions and be prepared to water for a few minutes, even if you just take the hose and lightly spray all over the lawn (just enough to keep the seeds moist). The only thing most of the soil in Utah needs in the way of fertilizer is N, which is the first number on the bags of chemical fertilizer. If you're using chemical fertilizers, something like 21-0-0 will do the trick (no need to get anything fancy like spring edition or name brands, just the cheap generic 21-0-0 will work). The usual recommendation is to apply 1 lb of actual N per 1000 sq ft, three times a year. If you don't mulch mow, you should probably apply it once in the spring, then once in early-mid fall, and once in late fall. By late fall, I mean after the topgrowth has stopped, but while the grass is still green (probably early November). The late fall application is probably the most important application of the year. To get the amount of fertilizer to use, divide the number of square feet in your lawn by the fist number on the package, then divide the result by 10. Then get the package closest in lbs to that number. For example, I have about 4000 sq ft, so if I buy 21-0-0 fertilizer, 4000/21 is about 190, divided by 10 is 19, so I buy the 20 lb bag. If you mulch mow, you can skip the spring fertilization. I'm assuming your friend is getting either a fertilizer made from goose turds or actual goose turds. I'm a little intrigued if it's actual goos turds. Why does he need to go to MT? Don't geese poop in Utah? I think either way, the goose turds would be better for your lawn in the long run than the 21-0-0 would be. One of the problems faced by most Utah soil is a low level of organic matter (it's why our soil is yellow instead of black and part of why it's so difficult to get water to penetrate). If you have a Starbucks nearby (or on the way to/from work), you can stop in and pick up used coffee grounds for free (this only applies to the "real" Starbucks, not the ones in stores, the airport, etc). It doesn't matter if you drink coffee or not; there's no need to buy anything. They save a tremendous amount of money by giving the grounds to gardeners rather than paying to have them hauled off. They should have a bucket with grounds for the garden neatly packaged. If you don't see one, ask. Even if you do see them, you can also ask if they have more behind the counter that you can take. Some outlets don't get enough people asking for them, so they stop saving them (the one in the Gallivan Center is an example). But if you call ahead, they'll save them. And if you let them know you'll stop on a regular basis, they'll probably save as many as you can carry. I bought a plastic storage bin to cart the grounds in so they don't leak out. My wife doesn't like the smell during the summer, so I compost them during the summer. The rest of the time (when the ground isn't snow covered) I just toss them on the lawn. I start in one corner and work my way around the lawn, then when I've covered the whole lawn, I start over again. Coffee grounds are a source of N and also add organic content to the soil. So now I only fertilize once a year, the late fall application of N. I generally prefer organics, but I'm not a purist, so I often use chemical sources for the late fall application.

Hi again! I'm back with an update on how my lawn has done this year and some questions on what to do next. I did the recommended amendments in the spring, and things greened up and filled in pretty nicely. We had a ridiculously dry summer and early fall, and I don't have irrigation, so things didn't stay totally green all summer, but mostly looked okay (except for a patch near the street - more on that in a minute.) I've been a little behind schedule on the amendments this fall, but here's what I've done: -around 8/15: milorganite -around 9/26: milorganite, encap lime (front only), overseeded part of front and back w/Pennington Sun & Shade mix -10/11 and 12: encap lime (back only), potassium sulfate (front only) I ran out of lime on 9/26 and had to order a new bag, so that's why only the front got done then. That put me behind schedule on the back yard, but I'll do the potassium sulfate on that in 2 weeks. I know I'm late overseeding, but it was so dry in Aug/Sept and I knew I couldn't keep up with the watering, so I decided to wait. I only overseeded some sections that were pretty bad that I felt like I could keep watered this fall. We also, luckily, got some significant rain this past couple of weeks after I got the seed down. Here are some pics of how things look now. This is the good part, closer to the house (most of it looks like this): This is the part we're still having problems with, right next to the street: Most of what's there is actually crabgrass. I just overseeded this section and have been keeping it watered, but germination is sparse (another area up by the house has much better germination). This also happened last year when we seeded and this area just didn't take. Some questions: It occurred to us that part of the problem in this area might be road salt. If that is the problem, is there anything we can do about it? I didn't get in 3 rounds of milorganite this fall. Should I do another one, or just skip it and winterize at some point? If so, when? I saw that Espoma now has a winterizing product. Can I use that? Anything else I should do this fall? Since irrigation is a problem for overseeding the whole lawn, I was thinking I might try dormant seeding this winter. Is this a good idea, or a waste? Thanks so much for your help!!