Removing broken glass from lawn?

This may be the dumbest problem I’ve ever had (and I’ve had some doozies.)
Long story short: I have a broken sliding glass door lying in an overgrown section of my lawn. Lots of broken glass, lots of long grass, no idea how to clean it all up.
I tried a shop vac, which was only partly successful, until it died an ugly death. Overall, it wasn’t effective enough. I will never, ever get it all out with gloved hands.
Be gentle. I know how ridiculous this is.

Nah, it’s a hassle.

We had decades worth of broken bottle bits in our backyard in our first house. Not ours, we inherited them. We combed through it by hand, but they kept appearing, since there were tons just under the surface and they would come to the top.

I’d probably hire someone to deal with the bulk of it, then count on finding little bits of glass from now to eternity. Sorry about that.

I’m thinking I should dig it all up–it should just be on the surface–and build a raised garden bed or a small deck area full of flower pots over it. It’s a nicer resolution than my first thought, which was “throw a bunch of pallets on top of it.” :slight_smile:

Grass is pretty easy to grow. I have to grow grass all the time and I am quite successful! (Other plants NOT SO MUCH.)

Dig up the grass, turn over some of the dirt, maybe compact it down a bit and then put on some new dirt, plant grass seed. Or even see how much a few yards of sod cost.

I’ll second just tearing up an inch or so of dirt, replacing it and throwing down some seed. It’ll cost you 15 dollars and an hour or two of time, plus watering it for the next few weeks.

You could try mowing it really short and seeing what you can pick out of it, but if you like to go outside barefoot, I’d rip it out. Personally, I never go outside barefoot, I’d probably start by just cutting the glass really short and seeing how much of it I could get out by hand or with a vacuum.

If the area is sunny it’s not hard to regrow grass from seed or sod.

If you’re going to bury it under some dirt, be sure to bury it several inches. Glass can work its way up to the surface like you wouldn’t believe.

Maybe you could go the opposite route and just bury what you can’t pick up by hand under some more soil and grass?

I* will have to dig it all up first. Some of the shards are loooong. Some, of course, are tiny. I don’t dare mow or clear it any other way because I’m afraid I’ll just end up with glass everywhere instead of just concentrated in that one area.
So…dig it all up, smooth it out, and then install something over it. Grass, as suggested above, or better yet, a raised bed.

*By “I” I mean “one of my older sons if I can con them into it the promise of beer and pizza.”

I’ve done this before. A powerful vacuum cleaner is the most useful tool. Any metal tool such as a trowel helps the process.

Forces of nature will eventually turn the glass into sand. I wouldn’t worry about it.

If only it were oceanfront, I’d wait until it converted to seaglass. :slight_smile:

Woah not sure I like the “cut it short” suggestion! You could toss glass all over the place with a low set lawnmower. Go straight to the dig it up option.

Eta: whichnI see you thought of. Good

use a garden rake, not a leaf rake, and gently rake it up. this will pick bits up on edge, looking from various angles you will see glints of light reflections. pick up using thick leather gloves.

it will take a while.

Yeah, don’t even bother trying to bury it, it won’t work for long.

We had an out building on the far end of the property at the house I grew up in. I broke a lot of old blue mason jars in that building when I was a kid and later it was burned down.

Had I known that I would return and take over this home in my '30’s I wouldn’t have broken all that damn glass!!

The former building site is now a nice part of my lawn and I still am picking up pieces of blue glass. I get it all one year, and next year there is more. Rain, frost cycles, worms and moles, they all contribute to that glass rising to the surface.

Been picking up the problem I created for about 25 years now, going to do the first mow of the season tomorrow since it will be in the mid 60s, and I expect to find at least a few more pieces of glass.

Cover with concrete–put a patio there.

Oooh, a rake. Why didn’t I think of that? Very good. So I think my process will involve:

  1. Tediously tearing (by hand) long grass off so that I can reach the glass underneath.
  2. Using a heavy rake to try to rake broken glass, bit by slow bit, into a slightly more manageable pile.
  3. Wearing ridiculous heavy gloves with an incredibly noisy shop vac on hand, remove what glass I can.
  4. Use a shovel to remove a couple of inches of sod/glass, which will involve a fair amount of swearing and aching muscles.
  5. Build a raised bed, deck, addition, barn, hot tub, or something over the newly cleared area. Because while I don’t have a lot of experience with removing broken glass from a lawn, I do have some experience with HAVING broken glass in a lawn, and I know how it will never, ever go away completely no matter how much I pick up.
    If I didn’t have the dogs running back there I’d go with a much lazier option. But I want another raised bed or two anyway, so this will give me a good reason to get going om that.

This is going to be a blast! sigh Thanks for all the advice, I feel much more encouraged now that I can do this.