We just got our water bill for the last 3 months and its $142!!! I've asked them to reread the meter because I have trouble seeing 2 people using that much water. Our usual water bill is like around $40. But if the meter reads that again, the only thing we can assume is its from watering the grass so much and the plants we put in. We overseeded the front lawn because there's hardly any grass. So we've been getting the lawn wet several times a day so the grass seeds don't dry out, like what it says on the package.
We were thinking about putting topsoil over our yard though because the soil is very sandy. The frontyard has some dirt in it, someone put topsoil over at some point. But the sand has really taken over, its probably like 75% sand and 25% dirt. The backyard is 100% sand pretty much.
If we do decide to put another layer of topsoil over the yard, is there anything we can mix in that would be good for the grass and retain water better so we wouldn't have to water very often? Back home we watered the lawn once a week during the hottest parts of the summer and that was it. mainly because it rained a lot, but we had really well established lawns everywhere we lived, it was the evergreen state after all. So we're totally lost with this sandy soil.
I think about maybe turning the frontyard into one huge garden or something, but we really can't afford to do that this year since we've already done so much as far as plants and stuff go.
Water Conservng Plants: Need less water, survive droughts
Dense Plantings: Shades soil, Smothers weeds
Soil Contouring: Catches water, directs water where needed, helps plants and soil life survive both wet and dry periods, builds humus, adds visual interest
Soil Contouring
HOW TO MAKE A SWALE:
It's really quite simple, on the horizontal of the downslope of your land shovel a trench that is 1 foot deep and 18 inches wide where aesthetics aren't a big concern and 6 inches deep but, 2 to 3 feet wide and pile the excess soil down from the trench to make a berm running behind the trench.
Next, lay a 3 to 6 inch layer of gravel in the bottom of the trench, followed by packed straw or some other absorbent material. Top the Swale off with a 1-2 inch layer of soil.
The Swale will allow rainwater to collect in the soil instead of having the rainwater simply run off. Also, combined with a few of the above techniques, this will greatly reduce the amount of water you have to do. In fact, combining these techniques can totally eliminate the amount of watering you have to do.
But, remember a very important technique in water conservation and soil building is to build healthy, organic rich soil. The more humus, the more water that is absorbed. This technique would be pretty much useless in a sandy soil. Though, it would certainly help.
Deep mulching what comes to mind for me are both trench composting and sheet/lasagna composting. Use lots of leaf mulch. Apple seem to be the highestd in nutrients. I also really like maple. And don't forget your greens. Otherwise the composting bacteria will take Nitrogen from the surrounding soil to burn.
Oh and to ammend the sandy soil that your lawn is situated on top soil could help but, what would work better (and it can be free) is to spread compost over the lawn. You can use one of the spreaders that people use to spread synthetic fertilizers. Screened compost will work best.
Adding organic matter to the soil will ammend the sandyness of it. The sand will help bind the organic matter into soil aggregates which will further help to hold water in the soil.
So we're totally lost with this sandy soil.