Unrelated.... but since you contracted with a sprayer manufacturer to have one built to your specs please consider doing the same for a quality reliable spreader. Just sayin.😁
I have bare spots in my lawn. Have been working on improving the soil, I’m short on phosphorus. And currently dollar weeds are the only thing I see that is thriving. Over the last 3 months I’ve used spectracide (triazicide), RGS, Sunnyland St, Augustine weed and feed, fertilized with 24-0-6, used PRODIAMINE-65 Pre emergent, stress blend 7-0-20, humid acid, and Soil test showed a need for phosphorus so I had 10-10-10 left over so thru it down. I know it’s winter in Florida, I’m still mowing about every 2 weeks, have approximately 2000 sq.ft. I’m praying My Provista St.Augustine will thrive in Spring……..lawn was put in May 2019
Thank you. You're so very right. Keeping it simple will encourage a person to go ahead and do it and get thing's done . I've been trying to find the solution to evening out my new homes bumpy lawn. I figured there had to be a better way than trying to spread soil and breaking my back. Cheers to you and Thank you again.
In the UK we have lawn sand which I think used as a moss treatment it has an additive in and costs an absolute fortune. Good to have you back Allyn hope you had a relaxing festive period.
I’ve been watching you for years now. And just started attempting adding sand to the lawn. The thing I learned from this video is it’s ok to apply sand frequently (multiple apps within the month is ok). I did not know how often I could apply sand previous. Thanks.
Here in BEAUTIFUL SE coastal NC (Southport) it is 70 degrees! SO, I gave my lawn a quick mow; not because the grass needed to be cut, but simply to sweep up the leaves/pine straw. I have the mulching blade and bag working for me, instead of raking which disturbs newly growing stolons. SO MUCH MULCH for the flowerbeds! and the yard looks so much better.
Awesome video sir. I can personally say I've done this exact task and been 100% successful in that area. I had about a 4" hole where a tree died, filled it with sand, and I honestly can't even find that spot anymore. The fescue has completely covered it now going into year 2. I need to do more of this myself, so thanks for the reminder! God bless
@@TheRoadfarmer In my case, no. It's been some time and NC has crazy hot summers, it's sustained. I was spraying the NEXT products regularly then as well, as sand doesn't hold any nutritional value for the grass. However I treat that area just like the others now, as I can't find it.
This is a great video of you mow tall. I have a tttf/kbg 3-1 mix cut to 3 1/2 inches. Much better than scalping the entire lawn and waiting three weeks.
I have the Cleetus/Freedom Factory problem, invasive automobiles destroying my lawn! (usually my own ones..) Sand/dirtmix helps a lot filling the tracks, and the grass regrows pretty quick, but to help it fill in quicker I add a little seed to the sand before spreading.
Right before winter dormancy I spread about 5 gallons over a thousand or so square feet just because I hadn't used it for my main idea which was to edge the driveway and sidewalk then wash in a sand channel because the grass likes to grow over and on top of the cement
Wow. That hammer test is really going to put those university experts in their place! I’ve done sand at least twice a year for the last 3 years. We have terrible clay here in texas. Occasionally get the concrete comment. By people who don’t understand the golf course they love does the same thing. Great vid!
@@cbak87 yes. I have “high expansion Houston black clay” in San Antonio. Sometimes I aerate and fill in with sand. Sometimes just top dress. Had zero issues. You’d have to work and mix sand into the clay to make concrete. Doing a top dress is fine.
I personally use masonry sand by the truck load. I have 2 acres to level and brought in 20 ton last spring. Focused on some real bad areas BUT still need much more! Just do a little bit each year so you won't get overwhelmed with the experience lol
I have a short lawn leveling video on my channel and I show mixing in potting soil with the sand. However, the spot I level in that video is pretty much a bare spot. The same area also has centipede grass around it and I wanted the nutrients from the soil to promote and "welcome" the centipede to spread it's stolons into that area. I know centipede is a slow grower, but over time, it took to the spot quite wonderfully. 😁👍
bought a new house here in Florida and I have the Provista St Augustine and you have really helped me with the proper steps to get things rolling. Came from Michigan where I had a mix of blue grass, rye and fescue and it looked ok but now I have a brand new fresh start and I love "spraying and praying"
Hey from Palm Harbor! Happy New Year Al. Lawn is looking good and putting everyone to shame, thanks to your great strategy. The Milo I put down last month is really kicking in. Still mowing every couple of weeks to kind of keep it smoothed out. Going medieval on the weeds with Atrazine and preemergent. Thanks again Al, I appreciate what you do for us!
Great video AL! I've always used topsoil to level but all that organic matter decomposes and the area sinks back down overtime. For future jobs, sand it is! Keep the videos coming, had a little freezing rain yesterday in good Ole Chicago, spring is still a ways out
Al, I love your videos. It would be great to see a video on how to lower high spots properly without doing too much damage. You don't really see videos about that on RU-vid and it would benefit a lot of people I think. Thank you, for what you do!!!
YES!!! We had a fairly descent lawn, but the moles are wrecking havoc. Mounds, soft spots. UGH. Every time I would cut the grass I'd get depressed. We've tried so many things to get rid of them. There are some parts of my yard that it felt like walking on sand at the beach because it was so soft.
Large areas Remove turf from high area level sand and relay lawn. Or use a venturi attachment for your hose which you can poke through and it will suck dirt out, only useful in small areas.
😯These are GREAT tips, I'm definitely tired of adding soil and fresh seed to these areas seemingly every other year. Sand it is, I never thought to use it!🤷🏽♀️ Hahahahaha, you taught this ol' Chicago gal something, and I've always prided myself on my lawn care and landscaping skills. Many thanks, I just discovered your channel 👌🏽☺️
I was wondering where you were gonna go with this as the likes of lawntips in Australia and old mate Connor Ward clearly smash their lawn down before the leveling good to see someone doing an easy job that doesnt require a scalping 👍
ive been using sand to fill holes left by rocks and construction debris i pull out of my newly seeded yard. bermuda grass loves the sand and throws a few runners over the sand within 4-5 days. great info Allyn.
Leveling low spots is easy. How do you level higher spots? Without ripping out the lawn and starting over. I wish the aerator had some way to dump the plugs into a bin somewhere. It seems that over time this would naturally level the lawn if I dumped them in low spots. Not so much to fill the low spot but to lower the higher spots. I do use sand for low spots. My lawn gets out of level because of gophers and for years there has been a slight hump in one area that I've long been pondering how to lower.
For guys that don't want to do a full renovation (with lots of bumps), a flail type power rake set fairly low can actually do a decent leveling job. Especially if raked in both directions when the soil is slightly moist. It may leave a few bare spots on taller bumps. However, if done when the turf is vigorous, it usually bounces back with minimal spot seeding. I did this 3 years in a row and the mow is MUCH smoother. I still have a few low spots, due to runoff, which could use some sand. It does sacrifice some of the thatch layer and there may be a few weeds that come up. For me, this was better than starting over or rattling my brains out behind the mower.
The sand alone tip sounds best. I hear so many combining sand with soil and I always thought that to not seem proper. I guess it may be up to the grass type one has on there lawn.
I take a child’s paint brush and dip it into roundup and surgically paint the Bermuda without touching my SA. Only needs to paint a few and then it goes through the plant and kill a string of it.
Allyn, its like you're a mind reader. I've been planning to do some major leveling in my backyard here in Jacksonville... and you answered all my questions perfectly. Great stuff, thank you!
Another reason I would use this method is that our soil here in The Bahamas is sandy soil already so I'd be enhancing/re-enforcing what's already there.
Definitely an informative video! My backyard lawn is such a disaster it’s got peaks and valleys and poor drainage in low lying spots. I’m not sure I have the wherewithal to tackle that type of endeavor to fix it.
I tried planting grass with light fluffy compost vegetable soil and it turned green with algae I had crazy golf green results from powdery clay dug thick heavy bricks and broke it down by hand to desired prill size watered to make sticky and hold a crust then add seeds water then clay prills to cover then water melted them over the seeds and added more dirt from washed away areas I water in the heat of the day dark wet soil to get warm for germination and at night for cool wet soil wait a day or couple days maybe let it dry out and get natural rain and supplement the natural rain
I've used play sand and miracle grow potting mix to do some "heavy" leveling in a few isolated areas that were several inches lower. However, I've heard that if you're a Rebel and plan to mow reel low, you'll want to use finely screened masonry sand....
RGS is great year round - spray it into your leveled areas to improve them over time thelawncarenut.com/collections/liquid-fertilizer/products/rgs-1-gallon?variant=35025943560330
Love your videos I went from ugly to beautiful I didn’t know anything about grass, soil,until just last April and now I have one of the most beautiful yards in the neighborhood I read so much last year all your articles watched all your videos bought all your products spent so much money my wife was complaining I did spend too much but I’m just learning I also live here in Bradenton not too far from you thank you
I would like to take the opportunity to thank you for the useful information. I've been an intensive enthusiast for 20 years, but I'm still learning, it's the little things that make it. The grass in Belgium is different, less thick, and so is the climate. Still, a good one makes the difference in the long run. Keep the good work coming. Green greetings.
I’m in Ontario, Canada…is there anything in this video that wouldn’t apply to my lawn? I gotta think…no. But you’re the guy that would know. Btw…I find your videos very helpful. Unfortunately, many of the products you use aren’t available to us in Canada. Cheers!
I can’t wait until I get my lawn nice and dense like that. It’s not nearly as thin as it was in the beginning of the year, but still kind of thin. I seeded recently, but not the best job of it. Some new grass is coming up still though. I’m proud of the progress I’ve made. Looking forward to ending next year dominating. Super bumpy and not level at all too. Very neglected before I bought the house. Next fall is leveling I think. Maybe this spring if I decide to do early seeding.
My builder put all his waste in my front yard and buried it - this according to my neighbor. Been a nightmare. I also find fall brown patch are my low spots.
I use that sand and have been for 2 years. I also put my dogs poop watered down in low spots. My yard is slowly getting less water holding spots I inherited when purchased.
There is the "jacking" method. Mark out an area that is low and then pry it up with your spade shovel and throw some fresh dirt or sand underneath. If you put too much down, then you can stomp the grass with your feet until it's more even. Don't forget to "clean up".
Been doing this kind of stuff for a while... but would love to see a vid on options for how to shave down a high spot. My lawn used to be very heavily wooded... so there's high spots where old tree stump flares used to be, and sunken spots where old stumps were ground out and rotted away (long before I bought the house). What I usually do is cut the grass off the top (sod cutter) and then start scraping away with a shovel..go a little extra deep, then re-build with a cultivator tool and some sand to blend the top-most portion of the soil to be a sandy-loam... seems to work well. Regretting not taking a vid or two of it when I did the front yard, 2022 will be the back yard.
Just getting into this myself but this is similar to my situation as well. Trying to get it to be more level and smoother so it is easier to mow and jostling on the mower. I've got my work cut out for me...
@@chasingthefish9042 we're talking 6-8"+ of amplitude - it was a 30"+ tree with a root flare that was ground out, the earth around the tree had mounded up significantly. I'm pretty confident no roller will level it, other than possibly a pavement roller which would make my yard into a soild slab.
@@JoeEinMinne i did just that in in 2018 after hurricane micheal. Had a 100 foot pine tree fall it had a massive mound and stump. What I did was grind it down then remove the majority of the wood chips from the center. Then rented a walk behind compactor. After that I ran my hose and compacted the shit out of it till it was flat.
Didn’t see these 2 questions answered in the video: 1 Any mowing restrictions after you put down the sand? I’ve heard some say not to until it’s filled in which sounds counterintuitive to me. Mowing encourages growth! Obviously you don’t want to make ruts / disturb your sand too much, but I would think mowing would be fine. 2 Any need to water the sanded spots more? Or normal water schedule should be fine?
My lawn is 100% weed of mixed varieties depending on water drainage. Some defense clover, some sparse grass like weeds and 4 trillion purple, white, yellow flowering weeds. With lots of dandelions. My yard is very rutted because when it was built in '79, the yard was never touched up. Then city sewer was installed a few decades later so the septic tanks were crushed and filled in poorly. The lateral lines were poorly done originally and left 2 parallel ditches several inches deep that used to collect black water near the end. I think the entire yard needs to be tilled to about 4 inches and then run a drag sled all around until smooty. I want most water to flow toward the house to keep the clay moist so we don't crack the foundation and there are no gaps in the brick/wood transitions. The broadcast Bermuda and cover. I have 4 truck loads of dirt the city was hauling off when they did the sewer. My dad ask a load and they gave him 6 times more than he wanted/needed. They have created a 20 foot fire ant mound covered with 7' tall sunflowers. I am really dreading this and can't afford to pay $ks for some one else to do it. Suggestions?
Every time I go to a home center, I grab a few hundred pounds of sand for low spots. I figure I'll level the lawn over time. It may take years, but I'm in no hurry.
This is proof my phone is spying on me. Haven’t had a video recommended from this guy in ages. I went to go mow my lawn for the last time of the year, and I come inside and this is on the top of my feed. Did my phone hear my lawn mower or something?
