Sandy Soil Road Seed

[mtholton]

I had a short road put into a camper site this fall (pic attached). It climbs a mild hill up to the camper pad site. It was too late to plant last year when the work was finished. To help with errosion I'd like to get something that does well in sandy soils and will help prevent errosion. We'll be driving on it from time to time and I can mow when needed. Any suggestions? I don't need/want to have any food value in it. It is right along the road.

 

[j-bird]

Gravel. Seriously. A "road" in my opinion should not be planted in anything. Planting it will open you up to it becoming rutted, getting stuck or otherwise being torn up. Proper ditches with a proper stone base will resolve the issues I mentioned AND deal with your erosion concerns as well. Sooner or later you are going to go out to the property and it's going to be wetter than you thought.....and then....well, things get messy. Not the answer you wanted....but I suspect the best long term solution.

 

[mtholton]

Gravel. Seriously. A "road" in my opinion should not be planted in anything. Planting it will open you up to it becoming rutted, getting stuck or otherwise being torn up. Proper ditches with a proper stone base will resolve the issues I mentioned AND deal with your erosion concerns as well. Sooner or later you are going to go out to the property and it's going to be wetter than you thought.....and then....well, things get messy. Not the answer you wanted....but I suspect the best long term solution.

Thanks J-bird. I should clarify. For the most part, it would just be walking traffic and a little ATV. Longer term, a different site would be used for building so I don't want to sink too much into a temporary road. Perhaps a better description would be trail vs road! The dozer work did grade it some to help with run off.

 

[JFK52]

While gravel would be the real solution, it is expensive especially when any distance or road needs to be done. I have a driven on dirt road on my property that is on a slight rise. Due to a 4 inch in little over an hour rain late last summer it washed out with deep ruts. I disked over the road to make it just like a seed bed. I bought a mixture of regular rye and another seed that does well in shaded sandy soil. Planted it in late summer and left instructions so that no one would drive over it while it was growing. It would have cost upward of $400 to have a 14 cubic yard dump truck bring in a load of road coarse for that area. For the cost of the seed and some diesel ($60) I have green growth on the road that should deter further erosion.
I went with the suggestion of my seed company, Deer Creek Seed, for this project. I can not remember the other seed that was in the mix, but I got good late summer growth.

 

[j-bird]

Gotcha.....I envisioned more wheeled traffic......sorry.

Around here I would consider a mix of rye or wheat and a turf grass. Something like a fescue, perennial ryegrass or a bluegrass.....but your soils and hardiness zone may not support those. I like the rye or wheat to get something to germinate as soon as possible and rye in particular will germinate and green up the soonest. Just getting the roots in the ground will help retain the rest of the seed and allow it to do it's job as the spring warms into summer. Then you can mow the rye off once it starts to hinder the actual grass.

Many sod forming perennial grasses are frowned upon by habitat guys because they out compete native plants.....so keep that in mind if you have some desire for a plot or native grass area near by in the future.

 

[rocksnstumps]

Agree with jbird on this one. Some tough normally obnoxious turf grass is probably best. Sandy soil and traffic is just hard to keep stuff growing especially right where the footpath or tiretracks are. Native vegetation can take years to establish otherwise.

 

[MojoRisin]

I've planted some ATV sand trails with perennial ryegrass with success. I have more to do this year.