First time home owner, first time landscaper here. Purchased our home back in April and the yard was in rough shape. Disclaimer, I’m not really sure if this is a rant or if I’m just looking for advice but I’m at my wits end.
I’ve spent many, many hours (days?) digging up bamboo, cutting down overgrowth, and removing concrete rubble from my yard. It was absolutely back breaking work – but I finally got it done. I was hoping to have the yard ready to seed some grass come Fall. The dream is to have a nice, lush lawn in my backyard. Or for it to be green at least
This past week I started raking out my yard to clear the top layer of dead leaves/weeds etc. I’m finding out that there’s a seemingly endless amount of gravel in my soil. Seriously, I just keep digging this shit up. What do I do here? I’m not even sure how to sift through this and get rid of it. Looking for any tips/suggestions or commiseration.
Thanks!
by squigz96
25 Comments
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Oof this is a rough one, sorry you’re in this situation. If it were me, I’d rent a bobcat for a day/weekend and haul out the top 6” of that entire yard. Fill it back in with topsoil.
Obviously you can pay someone to do any of those steps but it’ll get a lot more expensive
Agreed. You can bust your back sifting through that mess or you can rent a bobcat and a dump trailer and then put in some clean top soil and have a fantastic lawn next year
If you have kids you could pay them 10 cents per rock (all rocks size of a quarter or larger) to remove. Builds character 🙂
Full disclosure I tried similar with my daughters several years ago and it went…poorly.
Just like mining for gold!
[https://www.ebay.com/itm/256966471124?chn=ps&mkevt=1&mkcid=28&google_free_listing_action=view_item](https://www.ebay.com/itm/256966471124?chn=ps&mkevt=1&mkcid=28&google_free_listing_action=view_item)
Easiest thing to do here is buy a new house
Dig out 4-6 inches and replace it with fresh top soil. Mix in some mulch, milorganite and vermiculite with the top soil if possible.
Get a ryobi rubber sweeper attachment. It’s a beast and will clean that area up no problem. I used ours around the pool concrete deck after it was put in. There was tons of rock, concrete pieces etc.
I feel your literal pain. I had to clear a 600 sq ft pea gravel pit(4” deep in some areas). I’m just getting to the end of that project, but what I ended up doing is getting. 2×4, and getting mesh from hardware store, stapling the mesh screen on the 2×4, I would dump 1 x5 gallon bucket onto the mesh/screen, lift it at an angle and use a small hoe to “rake” the dirt up the screen. It worked the best out of all ideas I tried.
Now that the pea gravel is minimal, I called a sod farm and asked them for black dirt for 600 sq ft. They delivered it to my driveway for $250. I’m in the process of hauling this back to the pit. Once it’s at the level of the rest of the lawn, I’m going to install sod right over it.
In your case, sorry to break it to you, the hard rocks and concrete is too much to have a health lawn, even if you put down 2-3” of dirt. You’ll have to do some excavation, or you’ll be looking at raising your entire area by 4-5” (or more) with dirt.
You might want to build yourself a sifter.
1/2 Inch hardware cloth, 2×4’s, staples, screws, maybe wood glue, depending how sturdy you want to build the sifter.
If you have a wheelbarrow, measure the top, and see if you want to make it about the same size, or slightly larger, so you can sift straight into it.
If you want to make it super sturdy, you’ll be “sandwiching” the hardware cloth between 2 frames:
1st, assemble 1 square (or rectangle) of your sifter, but DON’T do 45 degree cuts for the corners (just do straight 90 cuts). You can both toenail and glue, if you want it to be pretty strong, but it’ll get stronger later…
2nd, cut and attach hardware cloth to it with staples, making sure you don’t have any hanging out over the edges (it will snag on clothes/gloves, or just straight up cut you).
3rd, cut and assemble the other square/rectangle of the sifter, BUT make the cuts so that the joints aren’t overlapping with the joints for the previous frame. This way, when you attach them together, it’s more sturdy.
4th, attach the 2 frames together, using both wood glue and screws, “sandwiching” the hardware cloth in the middle.
Use this sifter to get rid of just rock/rubble, and keep what good dirt you do have.
You can then use this sifter for compost, later on, if you so desire.
Had the same situation in my backyard (mind you my dirt is very sandy and only ~1800 sq ft). Built me a tumbler sifter out of wire fencing and pvc for ~ $150. Grabbed a rake and shovel and went to town.
Now I have 4 giant piles of gravel I don’t know what to do with, but my yard is clear.
Like this: https://youtube.com/shorts/_Auw4MUPlXc?si=p_n9vTTaj_wqhjGP
Somewhere online I found a guy who posted the whole schematic, measurements, materials and all for the build. Took me a few hours to put it together but it got the job done.
Rent a rock hound
I had a similar situation, I would say my gravel situation was a bit worse. Spent hours and hours sifting it and it was never ending, when I tilled before seeding it just brought up more gravel.
Seeded this spring anyway with decent success, some patchy areas, maybe not the happiest of lawns but it’s green. I don’t feel any of the gravel when I’m barefoot at this point.
I would focus on large chunks of concrete out but the rest shouldn’t be a problem.
Unless you want to spend the $ on removing soil and then backfilling with better soil. The benefit would be getting a nice level lawn and a healthier start. Or just add good soil on top. GL!
Looks like it was a parking lot before it was your yard
I think your gravel had some grass in it.
Gravel is slightly littered with lawn
You have some grass in your gravel
your gravel is littered with grass. just go for a stone yard or give up.
I paid a few teens to pick up the rock, stucco, and concrete chunks from my yard after I killed all the shit grass and re-sodded.
I met one’s dad and he told me “make him work hard and sweat, I want him to understand”. That boy worked his asssssss off that day and I didn’t have to push him at all. I had to talk to his dad after and let him know how well that young man conducted himself.
Aerator rental from home depot snapback rr fescue from united seeds..light top soil water water water
I wouldn’t really worry about it. Get grass to seed and the sod will cover it up for the most part. If you live in an area with freeze thaw cycles even if you were to haul out 6 inches and replace with screened topsoil (which usually has some gravel anyways, places around here only use 3/4″ screens for topsoil) the gravel in the ground will work its way up to the surface over the coming years.
I would get anything larger than a walnut up and toss in the trash can. And then seed it with a light layer of top soil.
Every year you will be seeding and spreading compost burying the small rocks deeper and deeper so no worries.
I have a large sifter I shovel rocky soil into. I wouldn’t call it fun, but it’s the easiest way I’ve found to clear stones from the surface.
You might need to call a landscaping company to dig out 4-6 inches of the existing dirt/gravel. Then, backfill it with soil and start your new lawn process.
Either rent power equipments or hire ppl to do the soil digging for the whole yard, really not worth your body labor… And aim for next year spring seeding instead, focus on establish good soil. Not cheap tho