When to Use Sand on Your Lawn (and When Not To)
Soil covers almost 10% of the Earth’s surface, but for most people it remains a mystery when it comes to gardening and caring for plants. We vaguely understand that we should improve his health and avoid adding chemicals to him, but this makes him cloudy. Do we cultivate it or not? Do we cover this? Do we add things like sand to it?
For now, let’s focus on the last part. While there are many tips on how to use sand in your yard, it should only be done with caution and only when you use the right type of sand. Sand isn’t necessarily bad , but it’s only part of what makes soil effective, and using it may have some side effects to watch out for.
Your lawn is not a golf course
Golf courses are the platonic ideal of lawns (though we don’t recommend you actually grow a lawn), and golf courses use sand as part of their maintenance programs. This is probably why casual turf aficionados have jumped on board with the idea that they should be doing the same thing, without the context or specifics of how golf courses use the resource, so let’s clear up these misconceptions.
Sand should only be used on a residential lawn to level a hole or protect exposed tree roots. Even in such circumstances, what kind of sand you use and how you use it are important. To level your yard, use sand only where needed and as sparingly as possible. Using a lawn leveling rake will help you find these low spots to fill and ensure a nearly even final product. Alternatively, you can simply use fine compost instead, which will still level the lawn and also return nutrients to the soil while providing a good substrate for the lawn seeds you plant.
To protect tree roots above the ground, mix sand and soil in a one-to-one ratio to create a mud, then compact it around the root in layers, building up the soil around the root over time. The goal is simply to protect the root from damage from lawn mowers, gardening tools, people, pets, etc. You can also just use compost.
Either way, you’re probably buying the wrong sand.
It is very important what kind of sand you use. Golf courses use special round sand, often colored to match the lawn. You don’t have to do this (and I don’t recommend using dyes as they just add chemicals to the water table), but you do need to get the right kind of sand.
Sand is mainly composed of silica. The construction sand or brown sand you buy contains aggregates and may only contain 20% silica. It is used to provide structure and support in construction, but the jagged edges of the particles, which are good for construction, are harmful to the lawn. Even “play sand”, filtered and washed, is not primarily silica. Store-bought sand can also contain high levels of sodium, and you won’t be putting salt on your lawn, so you shouldn’t put salt sand on it either. Sand, even if appropriate, can acidify the soil, so you need to monitor the pH so you can counteract the acidity if necessary. Golf courses may use local beach sand that you and I do not have access to.
What you need is “lawn sand”, which can most likely be obtained from your local rock and soil yard. You can find it locally by Googling “lawn sand” and your city name.
Amendments will serve you better than feeding with sand.
Golf courses are sometimes sanded, but they do so for reasons that probably don’t apply at home.
Sand may be useful for treating fungal infections in lawns, but home lawns generally do not suffer from such problems. The greens on the course are subject to a lot of scarring from walking, playing on the course and driving, and as a result the soil is naturally scarified – this simply means that the soil is scratched. Golf courses also clean their turf regularly, a process that aerates and loosens the soil. At this point, a light topdressing of sand will likely work its way into the soil itself rather than just sitting on the lawn.
Your home lawn does not suffer from the same problems, so sand is not the most effective way to deliver nutrients to the soil. This applies to lawn treatments, and your local garden center can help you with the right amendments (such as fertilizers or other nutrients). mineral fertilizers designed to improve the soil) for your specific lawn.
Several Situations When Sandy Soil Is Really Beneficial
There’s a use for sandy soil in your garden that people don’t talk about enough, and that’s carrots. Some vegetables, such as carrots, benefit from sandier soil that is looser and more aerated. Carrots even like a little acidity, so while you’ll need to keep an eye on your pH levels due to sodium, you may benefit from a deep, sandy bed for carrot growth. This will reduce the tortuosity and stunted growth that some carrots have. in compacted soil. Sand has a nice side benefit: it heats up because it is silica, so as long as the pH is kept under control, it can be a positive addition to parts of your garden soil.
Another practical use of sand in the garden is to improve traction on sidewalks. While sand may contain sodium, it contains much less than salt, which is often used to de-ice sidewalks. This sidewalk salt is bad for pets’ feet, bad for the water table, and bad for your garden because as the snow melts, it gets into the beds lining the sidewalk. Sand can be a reasonable alternative to provide a little traction.