Sanding the lawn: when and with what? With sand to a lush green?

Of the race is not just a well-tended green space, but an important figurehead of every garden. For many gardeners, lush green in rich colors is the highlight of their own green oasis and with a lot of maintenance is involved in order to obtain a lawn that is appealing in the neighborhood presents. In addition to regular mowing, sanding works as a real miracle cure for a beautiful lawn, as the sand is used to optimize the soil.

Sands

What is sanding?

Sanding the lawn is a method of improving the soil quality of the lawn and thereby stimulating the growth of the grass. This method has been used for decades to prepare soccer fields and golf courses, which get their characteristic character and deep green color from the lawn sand. The granular mineral touches up the green space and corrects a variety of defects that can occur even with a well-manicured lawn.

• loosens compacted soils
• Drainage is created, thus protecting against waterlogging
• the soil becomes permeable if the soil is too heavy or fat
• ensures effective ventilation
• Unevenness can be leveled out

As you can see, sanding is suitable for many different soil conditions and optimizes them in order to be able to provide an attractive grass cover. This makes sanding an essential part of lawn care alongside mowing, fertilizing and watering, which is too often overlooked. The consequences of a lack of sanding can be seen in numerous running tracks, too dry or too moist soil and a light green that looks as if not enough lawn has been sown.

Tip: Lawn sand is also a good protection for the lawn if the garden is often used by children or pets. The sand acts as a buffer and protective layer for the soil and thus the quality of the lawn.

time

The appropriate time to spread the sand is either spring or autumn. If you have never worked your lawn with sand, you should definitely do this in the spring so that the grasses can grow easily over the spring and summer. In the following year you can choose when to sand the lawn. You don't have to spread any more lawn sand over the year, as it sinks into the ground and stays there. Even heavy rains won't wash it out, so you only need to do this once a year.

Sand art

Which sand is suitable for this?

Before you can start the procedure, you have to decide on the right sediment, which you will distribute in the end. There are two variants here that are extremely suitable for this project and are not even that expensive to buy.

• Quartz sand
• Play sand

Note: Products that are offered as lawn sand are usually one of these two variants and therefore you should find out which of the two types of sand it is before buying. Often this is also stated on the packaging of the sand.

Quartz sand

Quartz sand has an extremely fine structure and consists for the most part, if not exclusively, of quartz grains. This makes it a popular variant for sanding, as it is very suitable for optimizing the soil, especially for drainage. If you choose this variant, you should choose a product with the following properties and not just any construction sand that is lying around.

• fine-grained with a diameter of zero to two millimeters
• washed
• low in lime
• round grain if possible

This texture proves to be extremely effective for sanding, as the quartz sand can immediately penetrate the soil and take effect due to its fine grain. In addition, large quantities of this can be distributed without being visually noticeable. A cheap and at the same time perfectly suitable variant is Rhine sand, which is processed in exactly this form and therefore offers the best conditions for sanding your lawn.

Play sand

Play sand is sand that you find in a sandpit on a playground. Due to its diameter of 0.063 to two millimeters, it is just as effective as the Rhine sand. Another advantage of this sand is the thorough cleaning, in which silt and clay were washed out of the play sand particularly effectively to make it easier for the children to shape the sand.

Note: Do not confuse this sand with fall protection sand, which is also used in playgrounds and is mainly found under swings and climbing frames. With a diameter of eight millimeters, this is much too coarse and should therefore not be used.

instructions

In order to sand the lawn, you must first decide on a sand and acquire enough of it. When dosing the sand, the following applies: five liters of sand are required for one square meter of lawn area. That is, for a ten square meter lawn, you will need fifty liters of the selected sand. If you have decided on Rheinsand, it costs around four euros for one square meter. Play sand is clearly cheaper here with 20 liters for around three euros. After selecting the sand, sand the lawn as described below.

1. Step:

• mow the lawn back to a height of about two to three inches
• Make sure to mow the area evenly so that certain areas do not have to be used too much

2. Step:

• scarify the area lengthways and crossways
• Scarifying is important for the soil so that it can breathe again and thus supports the growth of the lawn grass
• this removes old moss and mulch from the previous year or summer, which makes the soil fresher again
• You will of course need a scarifier for this step

3. Step:

• set the scarifier to a depth of three to five millimeters
• this is enough so that enough old plant material is removed and the soil is thus effectively prepared for the addition of sand

4. Step:

• During this work process, individual parts of the earth become noticeable, the lawn thatch
• You only have to remove this afterwards, ideally with a rake or a leaf rake
• the scarifier's collecting basket can only hold small amounts of thatch
• Lawn thatch ensures the compaction of the soil, retains water and is suitable as a breeding ground for all kinds of insects
• therefore it is necessary to use the scarifier to refresh the lawn and to rid it of pathogens and pests
• In addition, the felt ensures waterlogging, which is negative for the growth of the grass

5. Step:

• Once the area has been cleaned, you need to pour the sand into a spreader and gradually drain your lawn
• the device takes over the work and distributes the sediment evenly and not too densely

6. Step:

• Of course, you can also do step 5 by hand
• Just be careful not to sand individual areas too heavily and thus create an imbalance

7. Step:

• then use a rake and distribute the quartz sand again
• Take a little time for this and make sure that the entire lawn has been sanded
• After the fresh sanding, the small grains are still clearly visible and so you can orientate yourself
• this way you can see where something is still missing or where too much has been distributed

8. Step:

• then you can moisten the lawn a little if it is too dry

9. Step:

• Two weeks after sanding, you should fertilize the lawn if you have decided to sand in March or April after the last frost
• this ensures a good soil quality and a dense lawn cover in the coming weeks

Aeration

Depending on the condition and nature of the lawn, it may be necessary to aerate it instead of scarifying it before sanding it. When aerating, the lawns are ventilated even more, which is only necessary if your lawn is heavily compacted. A manual or mechanical type aerator is used for this. These have so-called "spoons" (English for spoons), which pierce holes five to ten centimeters deep in the ground and thereby dissolve the compaction even more effectively. This is particularly important with old floors that have not been maintained for a long time.

Proceed as follows:

• drive the spoons into the earth at a distance of ten to 15 centimeters
• This creates continents in the form of cylinders, which are caught by the tub on the device
• dispose of them
• then you can sand as described above
• Be careful not to accidentally step the continent back into the ground if you use a device without a collecting tray

Top dressing

Top dressing - the icing on the cake

If you want to make your lawn even healthier and really want to stimulate it to grow, you should use topdressing. This term is a nutrient-rich mixture of sand, organic components, and fertilizers.

The following are used for the organic substances:

• peat
• Compost (sifted into the sediment)
• Fine foliage soil
• Earth cones / cylinders that they collected while aerating

There is also a classic lawn fertilizer that is added to the mixture. The top dressing is a real nutrient cocktail for the noble grasses of the lawn and thus you create the best Requirements for a lush grass cover, which is suitable for relaxing in summer, and with a bright green will inspire. The ingredients are simply mixed together and then sieved so that the top dressing can also be well distributed.

Playground

Prepare a playground

You can also completely save yourself the steps like scarifying if you don't want to prepare a well-tended lawn, but a play and adventure meadow for summer activities. Even the lawn around a football goal can be processed with it. For this you also need a suitable sand, which is distributed directly without implementing any special measures other than mowing. For this you only need two liters per square meter and you can fill this into the spreader and distribute it. Then use a rake or broom to distribute it more precisely. Children and pets can really let off steam here.