My neighbor's soil advice cost me a full backyard redo

Last spring, my neighbor Frank told me to skip the soil test and just mix in cheap topsoil from the big box store before laying sod. I trusted him because his lawn looks great, so I spent about $300 on bags and laid 800 square feet of fescue in mid-April. By July, half of it was brown and patchy, and a local nursery finally tested my soil and found the pH was way off and the clay was compacted. I dug it all up and started over with proper amendments, but I wish I had just paid the $25 for a test first. Has anyone else taken yard advice from a neighbor and immediately regretted it?

2 comments

2 Comments

morgan.rose1mo ago

Isn't it funny how we'll trust a neighbor's word over a $25 test that takes five minutes? Like, we'd never pick a doctor or a mechanic based on their lawn, but somehow we hand over our whole backyard to whoever's grass looks decent. I've seen the same thing happen with people taking cooking advice from a friend whose food is always dry, or following a coworker's diet plan when they're clearly tired all the time. It's like we want the shortcut so bad we skip the actual steps. Frank probably meant well, but his yard is his yard, and your soil is your soil. Hope the redo works out better this time.

wyatt_mitchell2629d ago

You ever notice how we'll take lawn advice from a guy who's never actually tested his own dirt, but we're scared of a $25 kit that tells you exactly what's wrong? I did the same thing last spring, my neighbor swore by this miracle fertilizer and I dumped it all over, then my grass turned yellow in patches while his stayed green. Turns out his soil is super acidic and mine's the opposite, so I basically fed it the wrong food for three months. The test took me ten minutes and showed me I needed lime, which was like $8 at the hardware store, and now I feel stupid for trusting the "expert" who just got lucky with his own yard.