Using Sand to Promote Lawn and Garden Health
We have talked a whole lot about plants, insects, soils, chemicals, etc… but one topic that we hardly hear about in landscape and gardening is sand. How important is sand and how can sand add to the overall health of our landscape and gardens?
When persons hear about sand the first thing that comes to their mind is the beach and yes you are right sandcastles. Now don’t get me wrong, it is nice to kick off our shoes, head to the beach, and become that child we once were having an all-out sand party.
Sand is beneficial in so many ways.
Sand matters
Sand plays a very big role because of the part it plays with our soil profile. While we can agree that soil is at the heart of the survival of plant life, soil still needs help in order to meet plant requirements.
Sand and it’s many uses
1. Top-dress lawns. Lawns that have uneven areas can be leveled by adding sand. As you add sand to those uneven areas rake sand lightly because you don’t want to damage grass or their tender roots, as you rake in the sand, it should be worked down to the grass root zone. Then irrigate or water so sand can settle. The end result is you will have an even lawn.
2. Sand helps in making clay soils more porous. Clay soils are soils that are known as poor drains soils, this type of soil is not ideal for plant growth because once wet this soil can hold moisture for long periods of time which spells trouble for plants.
A good quality soil holds the right amount of water while excess moisture drains through. Too much moisture can cause a plant to decline, the waterlogged soil will cause fungus to develop and destroy plant roots.
Sand can help by opening up soil particles allowing excess water to drain through or runoff. To learn more about soil type follow this link. Soil type.
3. Garden soil aids in proper airflow or circulation. Do you know that soil is very much alive, what I mean by that and what most people don’t know is, there are billions of soil microbes like bacteria, fungi, protozoa, etc…. that lives in soil.
The presence of these microbes is to assist in plant growth. These soil microbes convert organic matter such as dead grass roots, other plant parts along with the Bodies of insects, rodents, and other animals, breaking their bodies down to make the soil more fertile for plant life.
What does all of this have to do with sand, soil microbes need oxygen in order to live, the sand helps to provide oxygen by making spaces in between soil particles for microbes. In return, microbes do their part in helping our plants so they can survive. This process can be likened to a chain reaction.
4. Many landscape design features a sand trap area for recreational purposes.
5. Sand aids in lawn repair, if certain parts of your lawn die out, once you have diagnosed and treated the problem, removed dead grass fill and level spots with sand and watch as grass fills those areas.
6. Adding sand to clay soils can condition soils for plant life.
Word of caution
When using sand, the sand should be free of salt. Using sand that contains salt can be damaging to grass and plant life. Salt- free sand can be purchased from hardware stores or your garden centers.
The final word
Sand can be used in so many ways and yes in our garden and landscape also. Go ahead and use this white gold that does its part in plant life to ensure that garden plants, as well as our lawns, are growing healthy.
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About the author
Norman loves being in the garden, both at home and for his job....
he is 'Natures Little helper' being outdoors, growing his vegetables and flowers from an early age.
Now having spent over 22 years in the profession he want to give some of his knowledge to others...
his vast array of hints and tips you will find scattered over this site will help you no end growing plants in your garden.
Hey Nrichards,
Sand may cover some of a areas of planet, i was not aware of benefits of sand. I enjoyed beach and river and know that sand is very purposeful to construction work but never aware that it can be used as gardening tools. But i remember what i studied is some type of sand is rich in silicon.
Great post.
Rajesh
Hello it is so nice to meet you, it is amazing the benefits sand serves. Many persons don’t realize that but sand is a great tool that can to wonders.All the best to you and have a great day.
Thanks for the interesting post about sand.
I have a question regarding sand.
I live in Latvia, and we have a wonderful gift from mother nature, it is white sandy beaches Baltic Sea.
Recently I moved to the country side, but my mother still live next to the sea.
A couple of times I have brought some bags of sea sand to decorate flower beds. In a couple of weeks, the sand almost disappeared.
Why and is it worth doing? Perhaps need sand a lot more?
Hello so nice to meet you, what I am thinking is how much do you put down may be the reason why it is disappearing is because the layer might be to tin, and how is the wind and rain condition in that area, these may all play a part why you sand is disappearing. Hope this helps, all the best to you and have a good day. And please let me know how it goes.
Wow! What great information! I myself just put in a new lawn this summer and learned a couple of things, specifically about leveling areas.
I did find a few spelling errors that you really don’t want on your website or anywhere else really.
I will try my best to show where they are located, to make finding them easier for you.
The first couple is under the ‘2’ one is shown as ‘know’ and should be ‘known’. The second one is ‘To’, should read as ‘Too’.
Under ‘3’ ‘dose’ should be replaced with ‘does’.
Under ‘5’ ‘diagnosis’ should be ‘diagnosed’.
Under ‘Word of Caution’, ‘purchase’ should read ‘purchased’.
Under ‘Final Word’, ‘use’ should read as ‘used’.
I know that seems really nit-picky, but it isn’t. I will find mistakes I have made even after proof-reading it several times because we know what we what to say, so our brain will automatically and so we don’t notice.
Always best to have someone else proof-read your work.
Your Website (I know that’s not what I am evaluating), by the way, looks fabulous and I can see you have put a tremendous amount of work into it. I know I am going back to it next summer when I will again be working out in my yard.
Hello my dare lady, thanks a million for your help. I am glad that you pointed these out to me. All the best to you and have a good day
I had no idea that sand was beneficial to landscaping and plant life. All I ever knew about sand was that is was always located at the beach which you mentioned that sand is associated with the beach when it comes to peoples minds at the beginning of this article.
Aiding soil and leveling lawns is something I never would have associated sand with. This is some information I can pass on to the members of my family that garden on a regular basis.
Hello Jana it is so good to meet you and sand do serve us in many ways. Thanks for you help and I am glad that I could help. All the best to you and have a good day.
Hey Norman,
I see you fixed those few errors on your site page. That was fast. I also left a comment on your website for you.
I just can’t imagine how much work you put into your site, it is unbelievable 🙂
Keep up the good work!
I didn’t find any errors at all this time.
The navigation on your site is clear and easy to follow, very straightforward, which could have been very difficult with as many menu items as you have.
Good morning Barbara my dare friend it is so good to see you again. Thanks for your kind words and how you helped me, for that I am truly grateful, all the best to you and if you ever need my help just give me a shout. Have a good day.
I actually knew a lot of this from working in landscape and lawn maintenance. The only time I’ve seen sand really be a bad thing, were in areas of very low quality soil, which was mainly sand, and that’s mainly areas ear beaches, and desert regions, like Myrtle Beach SC. You can’t even aerate some people’s yard over there because it will peel the turf up like a can of sardines. I enjoyed reading your post! Keep up the good work!
Hello it is so good to meet, thanks for your kind words and it is amazing what sand can do within our landscapes and gardens. All the best to you and have a good day.
Hi Norman,
Once again, your article is just amazing, I was absorbed by the reading! I live nearby the sea, and there is sand as much as I want there. I’ve never had a clue that sand was so beneficial for the plants until I came across your website. I have bookmarked your website so I can follow your great suggestions later on.
Thank you very much for this excellent post!
Glad that I could help you, have a good day.
Hi Norman,
Once again, your article is just amazing, I was absorbed by the reading! I live nearby the sea, and there is sand as much as I want there. I’ve never had a clue that sand was so beneficial for the plants until I came across your website. I have bookmarked your website so I can follow your great suggestions later on.
Thank you very much for this excellent post!
Hello my dare friend it is so good to see you again, sand can help our Landscapes and Gardens in so many ways. Glad that I could help. All the best to you.
Hi Norman,
That post about sand is very informative. I thought the only place that sand can be seen is the beach and I didn’t know that the sand without salt can be used for gardening and can also use to level the lawn. What a nice article you have made. I have learned something , Thank you.
Hello Cris thanks for those kind words and sand is pretty amazing. All the best to you and have a good day.
Ok. This is absolutely awesome! I never could have imagined how beneficial sand is and all that it provides to plantlife. Thanks for sharing, now I can attend to the plants in my home and garden with more knowledge in the technical aspects of literal growth when before, My belief was to only provide plenty of water, sunshine and TLC.
Hello it so good to see you, the benefits that sand can provided us with in our landscape and garden is just awesome. Glad that I could help. All the best to you and happy gardening.
Thank you for this post. I use sand in my soil to grow Succulents and Cacti and I find it helps them grow a lot better. I do have a question, what about sand in your yard if you have children and pets such as cats (cats may mistake it for a litter box)? I have heard things about the dangers of sandboxes.
Hello again Misty, and you ask a very good question. sand boxes though enjoyed by kind can become a liter box for animals such as cats, raccoons, and other animals and and if the sand gets wet i can develop bacteria. Even though some people still have them install, they need to be aware of the negative side of sand boxes. Hope this helps, all the best to you and have a good day.
Very interesting post, as a resident of Florida our soil is mostly sand and we need to add dirt to grow certain plants. I have a big cactus garden and they do very well in this type of soil. I was not aware of all the benefits that sand has. Thank you for sharing this information.
Hello Cathy it is so goo to hear from you again. Sand has so many great benefits and do help in many ways. Thanks for sharing, all the best to you and have a good day.
Hi there,
Excellent site and a highly informative article thanks for sharing it with us. One thing stopping me and has stopped me for years from having a beautiful garden is that during the rainy season which lasts half the year. Could using sand help me in that aspect to slightly raise the garder and aid in water absorbtion instead of it sitting like puddles in may areas?
Good morning my friend it is so good to see you, sand is good for drainage and can help you with this problem along with raising the garden or if you can you can build a raise bed that can also help with this problem. You can check this article out and give it a try. Thanks again, all the best with your garden project and please let me know how it goes. https://staging-gardenofedengardencenter.siterubix.com/raised-bed-gardening-ideas
We’re thinking of using sand as a landscape material for the newly-renovated garden, and I do like that they can be used to top-dress lawns as you say so we can make a good garden soil to start with. I was not aware that sand aids in lawn repair like you mentioned which means we can use excess bags to help keep the new garden beautiful. I will take care of moderating its use because you stated that the sand should be free of salt, so we’ll ask a sand supplier to give us a salt-free bag if we find one.