I want grass where my sandbox is.

I moved into a house a few months ago and I’m starting to get around to some of the landscaping. The old people left us with two gardens that were worthless, they’ve since been ripped out and sodded. A long stretch of ‘jungle’ that I’m in the process of tearing out and mulching and a big sandbox. The sandbox is somewhere between 160 and 300 square feet (I didn’t measure, I’m just guessing it’s somewhere between 8x20 and 10x30 without actually going outside and looking), and the sand I think it’s about 4 or 5 inches deep. To one side of this is, well, nothing, just mud and some garbage, which will be sodded (or seeded). Anyways, I’d like this area to be grass. So what are my options? I told the old owners that I plan to get rid of it and her comment was to throw grass seed in it and it’ll be fine. (I should mention that her thumb isn’t nearly as green as she seems to think it is. Although she did manage to keep a cactus growing outside in an area with very little sun for five years in Wisconsin). I’m thinking that just tilling the box and tossing seed in it isn’t going to work, or will it? I’m also assuming that just rolling sod over the top of the sand won’t work either. So am I going to have to dispose of all the sand, down to the dirt, buy alot of dirt to build it back up and then worry about grass? Can I just put a layer of dirt over the sand and go from there? How deep would it have to be for the grass to take? If it only has to be a few inches, that would work, since I wouldn’t mind if there was a bit of a hill. If I get rid of the sand, any ideas on how? Putting it in my pockets and taking it to work ala The Great Escape seems like it would take a while. I could just fill up my garbage with it on garbage day and do it that way, but that might take a while as well. Also, with this question, what’s the best way to deal with an area this size. sod or seed? After this I have a few other questions, but this is the one I happen to be curious about at the moment.

ps This sandbox butts up against a fence, that the old owners decided to put up about 4 feet off the property line :smack:. The only reason I can think of that they did this is becuase the retaining wall behind it is pretty crappy and appears to be failing. I don’t think it can support a fence, and the backfill appears to be erroding. Next summer I’m thinking about rebulding the retaining wall and moving the fence back to the property line, so maybe it might be a good idea to keep the sand as backfill. In which case I’d probably keep it in the above mentioned mud and garbage area until I’m ready to use it.

What’s the soil like? If it’s clay-ey, the sand will be a good amendment.

Youcould get a load of compost ($100 worth), spread that over the sand, and rototill up the whole area.

My son has a sandbox and, even with the border and fabric, it’s all I can do to keep the lawn out of it. You could probably smooth it down to grade, throw a couple rolls of sod onto it and call it a day. Well, might want to water the sod :wink:

I’m not all that far from you, and have had yards much like you describe - sand, sand, sand. I can attest that grass grows just fine in sand. Just throw some seed on and you’ll be good to go.