Where to dig

I need some good top soil to patch a hillside in my yard that has refused to grow grass. Everyplace I pick to dig has disadvantages. I have hills, lots of hills. If I dig on them it will make more run off down the hill, and probably cover my trails. At the bottom of the hills is a pond in one area (close by) and the other close by one has tree debris that was bulldozed down there to clear the hill. Digging on the hill will also make it impossible to traverse.

How do you decide where to dig?

Doc said:

I need some good top soil to patch a hillside in my yard that has refused to grow grass. Everyplace I pick to dig has disadvantages. I have hills, lots of hills. If I dig on them it will make more run off down the hill, and probably cover my trails. At the bottom of the hills is a pond in one area (close by) and the other close by one has tree debris that was bulldozed down there to clear the hill. Digging on the hill will also make it impossible to traverse.

How do you decide where to dig?

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Dig on the neighbor's! Really, only you can answer that question. But, if you have hills, then you must have hilltops. Maybe you can go to a hilltop & skim dirt & not leave deep gouges.

why not plant some dutch white clover - it'll stabilize and add nitrogen to the soil, as well as organic matter, then you could either leave it clover, or till it under after a year or so?

How big of an area is this?
Maybe a prime spot for a rock garden?

How much soil do you need?

Generally, soil is deepest at the bottom of a hill as run-off has accumulated over the years.

A great source for topsoil is ditches. If you clean out any ditches, you may have what you need. Also check with your township or whomever clears the road ditches. They're often looking for a place to dump the ditch cleanings. You may have to pick a can or 2 out of it but it's otherwise pretty nice stuff.

Good thoughts guys. I might just get ahold of the county. Good suggestion BC.

The area is about 60ft by 30ft. x 2 (both sides of a walkout basement). Wife really wants retaining walls put in, and I'm fighting against that idea. I like being able to drive the mower down one hill and up the other. Retaining walls typically will lean. Plus I prefer natural. Ivey might work.
As it stands now I'm on top of the hill, so no where to skim that is not already yard. I ended up going down to one of the not so used trails and scooped some dirt from there. I only got about 5 bucket loads so far. Lots more where that came from. It will make a steep drop off ....but that should not be a problem.
All the way at the bottom is my small pond. Kind of dangerous digging there. I'd probably end up wet.
Thanks for the suggestions all.

Doc said:

The area is about 60ft by 30ft. x 2

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That's the size area you need to fill? If so, uh oh... If my math is correct, you're looking at over 130 cu/yds. That's 10 tri-axle dump truck loads (or about 300 trips with the loader on your tractor)

Or, is that just the area you want to cover with something? If so, phew. That will save a lot of dirt moving. If you like natural, have you considered rocks? I have a hill that's too steep to mow or do anything else with it. I covered it with 4-6" rock. Hang on. I'll go snap a pic and be right back.

OK, here's a couple pics of my stone wall. The pile of stone was dumped at the top and I just pushed it over the side using the FEL then picked up the few that rolled too far.

if you build a retaining wall that slopes back along the curve of the hill, it won't slump or lean back forwards - and you can put a flat cap on it so you have a spot to mow to. Mine's built out of native limestone from a basement up the road. (what came out of the ground when they dug the footings for a neighbor)

Thanks BC. You made me laugh. Sorry I wasn't very clear. The hills are on either side of the walk out basement. I want to keep that access open so no, I don't want to fill that whole area.
I was simply wanting to put some good top soil on top of what is there. Loose dirt should hold the seed better than the hard packed dirt there now. These are only 6 ft tall and gently sloping. The contractor advised against a retaining wall and made the hills so that a mower can easily traverse them. My ZTR, Simplicity and Bolens all could handel the hills without an problem. My problem has been getting grass to grow on them. I've tried seed and straw but it's windy on the hill and as soon as the straw dries up it blows away. I've bought the tack down ground cover and it stayed in place long enough for seed to start. I was hoping it could be reused but it couldn't and to do the whole area with that stuff would be more expense than I want to put into this area. So, I figured a little loose dirt and some seed and straw might work. Worth a try anyway.
So I should not need more than 30 bucket fulls of dirt. I've already got 5 and that covered a fair sized area. If it keeps covering like the first 5 did I might get by with 20 bucketfuls.

OK, I got it now...

I "used to" use straw pretty regularly but moved on to easier and more readily available things to cover new seed.

Here's a thread where I showed that I had much better success using plastic instead of straw. Seed came up much faster.
http://www.nettractortalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=317

I'm also now using grass clippings (since I seem to have so many of them this time of year). They cover new seed nicely but are small enough that the wind can't really pick them up.

Thanks for the reminder BC. I obviously read that thread before but had forgotten about it somewnere along the way.
I'm talking about the same friggin hillside in that thread. Still limited success with growing grass. Your success was awesome. Now that I've dug it up some maybe I'll give the plastic another try. Nothing to loose.

I would plant rosemary. It smells good and is nice to look at.