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| I like to top dress my yard and finally got around using a tape measurer to measure out the dimenion. The total square feet works out to be roughly 6600 square feet. According to the calculator, I need about 1 cubic yard per 1000 square feet. I would need like 6-7 cubic yard of compost!
* Is this right?
I think they quoted me like $30 per cubic yard and $30 for delivery. Paul |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| That's about right. |
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| Just to give you an idea... A small single axle dumptruck holds roughfly 5cy. The bigger dump trucks that you see working most construction sites hold roughly 10cy. So yeah, it's quite a pile-o-dirt. |
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- Posted by texas-weed 7A (My Page) on Mon, Sep 19, 11 at 9:29
| You got it right and it is one large dump truck load. |
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| Thanks! In that case, I may just do part of the yard every year and hope that the ringer restore stuff will do the job on the other parts of the yard. If I do one part of the house, I may be able to get away with just 2-3 cubic yard. There's one part of teh yard that I need overseeding, so that would be a good part to try. Second question, how difficult effort and time-wise would it be to move 1 cubic yard of compost from the pile to my yard. I thought think, I'll fill a bucket, carry it to part of the yard and dump it and then spread it out with a rake? Paul |
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| "I'll fill a bucket," Unless you plan on taking months, you will need a good wheelbarrow, a good rake, and a shovel. Best would be to rent a small garden tractor with a front bucket, or small trailer. UNLESS you are doing this for the exercise |
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- Posted by texas-weed 7A (My Page) on Mon, Sep 19, 11 at 12:40
| A bucket? I hope that bucket is attached to a front end loader. It takes 14 heaping wheel barrow loads to equal 1 cubic yard. You did not mention what size bucket, so I will convert gallons to cu. yards. 1 gal(US Liq) = 0.004951 yd� So 202- 1 gallon buckets, or about 50-5 gallon buckets= 1 cu yard. Make your wife do it. |
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| I was thinking of using a 5 gallon bucket, so 2 cubic yard = 100 trips, not good. If I use a wheel barrel, that would be 28 trips, which would be more acceptible. I'll see if i can borrow a wheel barrow from the inlaws. I am glad we had this conversation. My wife doesn't like to do yard work... |
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- Posted by jrodriguez90 No. VA (My Page) on Mon, Sep 19, 11 at 14:58
| Most places will also rent you a commercial spreader, that you can use to spread the compost rather than loading up the wheelbarrow and spreading it with a rake. It is heavy though. |
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- Posted by silver8ack none (My Page) on Mon, Sep 19, 11 at 22:54
| You should try spreading 15 yards of soaking wet topsoil. Not fun. But a great workout. |
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| How thick of a layer of compost are you planning on using? You only need about 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick layer. Would that lessen the amount you need? Do you plan on dumping the compost into small piles and then spreading it around using a steel rake or simply broadcasting it with a shovel? If you get 6-7 yds, I would plan on a two long-day job. |
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| I was shooting for roughly between 1/4 to 1/2 inch. 6-7 cubic yard is just too much. I think in the future, I am just going to do 2 cubic yard at a time. Soil test already indicate that I have fairly high organic material, so skipping isn't going to cause problems. I am starting on the section that got damaged by grubs and drought last year. I was hoping that this year it will recover, but not enough, so I am reseeding the bald spots. Looks like this year, it's sod worms, but it appears to have hit mostly on my neighbor's side. Paul |
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| We had 11 cubic yards of a mixture of topsoil and compost delivered and dumped on our driveway last Tuesday morning. My husband and I had it all done and spread by the end of Wednesday. HARD work. He shoveled it into the cart pulled by the lawnmower. He'd drive it to where I wanted the pile, and I'd pull the lever, dumping it (which would be only partially dumped--had to then rake the rest out of the cart while he'd pull slowly forward). I did all the raking. We were exhausted. But, it's all spread. Seed down and already starting to come up! If you're doing it all alone, I'd add another two days--more if using a wheelbarrow only......unless you're young and in fantastic shape and it's cooler than the 90s it was when we did it. Good luck. |
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| Two reason to top dress: 1. Another poster indicated that it would still be a good idea. The extra organic stuff will get get processed by the microbes. Supposedly, it will also help break down thatch. 2. The soil appears have a rather high PH of 7.5. The PH of the compost is lower. Adding compost should overtime reduce the PH. I am not in fantastic shape but can use the exercise. I am only doing 2 cubic yard this time. Temperature is a cool 60. |
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- Posted by pondbucket 5, KS (My Page) on Thu, Sep 22, 11 at 19:57
| Paulsiu, your math was spot on to begin with, to spread 1/8" to 1/4" of top dressing soil/compost you would need 'round 6.4 cu. yds. I'm going thru the same process now, taking a break from the raking and spreading. I like spreading Peat Moss since it's lighter, but I use compost or soil on the greater sloped areas. Also, if you have bare spots you can use the native soil. Just rake it away, drop your seed, and re-cover with a light layer. |
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| I've always wondered how peat moss is different from compost. I thought compost contains more nutrients and therefore is a better soil conditioner. Not to mention it's free at our local recycling center. So I did a quick search and here's one source that compares the two, among other choices. |
Here is a link that might be useful: compost and peat moss
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- Posted by pondbucket 5, KS (My Page) on Fri, Sep 23, 11 at 12:27
| Reed_nj, Yeah peat isn't the best but it works to hold moisture for the seed. It certainly ins't the best for the environment due to the peat marsh issues. Your link has a nice write up. |
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- Posted by texas-weed 7A (My Page) on Fri, Sep 23, 11 at 23:05
| It certainly ins't the best for the environment due to the peat marsh issues. I think you are confusing Peat Moss and Pete. They are completely different things. Peat Moss or Sphagnum is a moss plant. Peat is decayed vegetation, animals, and insects. Basically anything that was in the wet land forest. Peat forms in marshland and is inhibited from decaying fully by acidic and anaerobic conditions. Peat is the earliest stage in the formation of coal, oil, and natural gas. It is used as fuel and makes a superb soil amendment extremely rich in minerals and nutrient. It is using peat that is controversial because it takes a thousands years to form. Sphagnum Peat Moss on the other hand is a plant that grows and is renewable on a yearly basis. It has very minimal minerals and nutrients, so much so it can be ignored. It is it water holding capacity that makes it a good soil amendment or soil substitution for potting mixes. |
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| OK, I had two cubic yard of brush compost delivered to a plastic sheet on the driveway. I dump the stuff into a wheel barrel, carried it to a section of the lawn, dump and spread. So it appears that I can do roughly 0.5 to 1 cubic yard per hour. It's hardwork though, so I think doing 6 cubic yard would be a bit too much. The treated section of the lawn is now darker than the rest of my lawn and my neighbor thinks I am nuts, but hopefully, this will be all worth it when I overseed. Paul |
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