You’ve just moved into a new home, and no matter what you do, your grass is not thriving.
It’s possible that your lawn is filled with fill dirt, not topsoil.
Are you living a nightmare, or can grass grow in fill dirt?
Fill dirt isn’t a nutrient-rich medium, and growing grass in it is next to impossible.
You can do things to improve the fill dirt to make it more growing-comfortable for plants, but if you’re going to have a lawn that is all grass, your best option is going to be to cover the fill dirt with topsoil.
What Is Fill Dirt?
So, what is fill dirt and why is grassroots so difficult to grow in?
Fill dirt normally is found underneath the topsoil, that is the outmost layer, below the root systems in a lawn.
Fill dirt has no nutrients supply because it has no fertilizer or decaying organic matter, and it is so far down that the living organisms in soil usually do not have water from this area so they normally avoid it.
Without water, without nutrients and no living organisms, fill dirt gives plants as much as concrete does, nothing.
So, fill dirt is actually useful for things, just like concrete.
Fill dirt is made of:
- Sand
- Clay
- And small pieces of rocks
Fill dirt is used for a base, for driveways and roads, to “fill” the hole in the earth or as a base to make a lawn level, before putting down topsoil.
The reason fill dirt works so well for construction projects is fill dirt does not shrink or expand due to weather conditions.
Fill dirt can also be used for smaller projects too:
- Filling in areas around pipes and underground wires
- Filling the bottom of a raised garden bed
- Laying level under an above ground pool
- Landscaping projects
Can You Force Grass to Grow?
If you’ve ever passed by a construction site, you may have seen a really large pile of dirt sitting there.
This is most likely fill dirt which is being used to help stabilize the foundation.
And if you looked a little more closely, you may have noticed some small patches of grass growing above this pile of dirt.
So am I lying to you?
Grass doesn’t grow really well in fill dirt.
Fill dirt has no nutritional value that’ll help sustain grass; but if the fill dirt has been exposed long enough to add organic matter, and there’s enough water, you might see small sprouts of grass.
There are ways to “fix” fill dirt to make it better for growing grass.
This is useful if you just moved into a place and the lawn looked like it needed some TLC, but no matter how hard you tried the grass just wouldn’t grow.
Key Takeaway: Following these steps will help alter the structure and composition of the dirt to turn it into a nutrient rich soil.
Aerate the Soil
If fill dirt has been allowed to compact for a little while, the dirt and rock pieces will have settled and compacted too.
Core aerators are a great starting point. They operate by removing plugs of soil to make space for air, water, and nutrients.
So if you find you’re dealing with heavily compacted soil, this will be the way to aerate and it’s definitely the best place to start.
You can use a lawnmower attachment, or just rent a core aerator machine to aerate a lawn.
Just push the machines over the areas you want to aerate, and don’t be surprised when the cores are left on the surface.
Add Organic Matter
Since we have already aerated and loosened the fill dirt, it is now time to add nutrients and organic material.
Your lawn will need the nutrients to feed off of to grow.
You can add nutrients by adding:
- Fertilizer
- Compost
- or topsoil
Compost or topsoil are preferred because you are benefitting from also adding some bulk to the fill dirt.
This bulk, in the form of decomposing foods, twigs, leaves, and grass will provide important space between the particles of fill dirt.
This spacer is important because the roots of the grass need a bit of space to grow.
If they are infill dirt that is compacted they will not grow.
The more space the better, because this will allow for better, water holding properties, better airflow and a habitat for beneficial microorganism.
Bring In the Topsoil
If everything else has failed, you may have to lay topsoil on top of your lawn.
You can have topsoil brought in by the truckload so that you have enough to cover your lawn and then some.
While spreading the topsoil out, till it into the top few inches of fill dirt.
Great Advice: By thinning the topsoil into the fill dirt, you are adding quality to your existing dirt and you won’t need as much topsoil.
Final Thoughts
Why aerate, till, add compost, and then till again if it may not help your grass?
We recommend skipping the amendment work to your fill dirt, and just getting topsoil.
In the long run, you would save time seeing results, and save money; a win-win situation!