Sand for lawn aeration - sharp or not?

[Min]

Spent Saturday in the sun crawling round the lawn lifting rosette weeds with a daisy grubber. Some of them had roots like samll parsnips so I thought 'Perfect, fill the hole with sand and increase the aeration of the lawn'.

Once I had run out of horticultural sand I started on the 'block paving' sand.

Have I condemned my lawn to less drainage and more moss, or is block paving sand sharp?

And before you ask, yes I do feel like a pillock and a cheap skate!

 

[Thermo]

tends to be finer than sharp sand but wont do any damage to the lawn. it should still assist in drainage

 

[Min]

Phew! Thanks Thermo.

 

[2scoops0406]

ensure that it is washed sand though, otherwise you will kill anything on contact. Too much salt !!

 

[Diyisfun]

For years I have forked my lawn & then raked sharp sand into it (I have never washed it). My lawn has always looked good except for them divots.

 

[Min]

Okay DIYisfun, how long do you reckon it takes you to fork your lawn and how big is your lawn - I am dreading the forking bit on mine.

I'm going home now to taste the sand ...
____________________________
Moderator

please note 10a

 

[mrgrumpy]

Why not hire an 'aerator' from your local hire shop, job's done in minutes.

Block paving sand is kiln dried sharp sand, I've used it on a lawn with no problems, even though it contains small amounts of lime.

 

[Diyisfun]

OK my lawn is not big, but I fork it when I fancy fresh air. It doesn't need to be done in one hit & you can even spread it out over 2 years. As has been suggested you can buy/hire an aerator

 

[Dewy]

My lawn is on solid blue clay.
I improved the growth an ddrainage by forking it all over then brushing a mixture of sharp sand and peat with more sand that peat.
A couple of years of this and the lawn now drains well even after heavy rain.
I also mixed sharp sand with the soil in the flower beds which has improved it no end.

 

[masona]

I also mixed sharp sand with the soil in the flower beds which has improved it no end.

Have to agreed, the best I've done is 1/3 peat, 1/3 sharp sand & 1/3 top soil in a cement mixer ! I did get some funny look

 

[Min]

Do you guys actually mean peat, or multicompost?

 

[Thermo]

dont use peat, its acidic, and can be environmentaly unfriendly

 

[masona]

dont use peat, its acidic, and can be environmentaly unfriendly

Didn't know that, are there environmentaly friendly peat available?

 

[Min]

It's not that peat itself is environmentally unfriendly, it's that using it is becaus eit has to be dug out of ancient peat bogs which take a long time to form anf are a natural habitat for all kinds of wild life.

Actually am surprised this isn't widely known. That's why people like Monty Don always say 'peat-substitute' these says.

So I guess a multipurpose compost would do okay in the mix.

 

[Dewy]

They have been telling gardeners about using a peat substitute instead of denuding the peat bogs since Geoff Hamilton presented Gardeners World.
Unfortunately there is nothing that works as well as peat.
The closest is composted coconut husks but the more we use here the less goes back into the soil where they are taken from.
Parks departments dump thousands of tons of leaves every year so I used to go out day after day in the autumn filling sacks with leaves to put in a 6'x3' bin made from old fence panels.
This provided as much leaf mould as I could use but I stopped doing this when I found that drug addicts threw their needles under the park trees.