glass in the grass

The problem: The neighbours had an old Integra sitting in their driveway. One night a while back, something happened involving a shopping cart and youthful high spirits, and glass from the hatchback went everywhere. They (eventually) cleaned up their driveway; I cleaned up mine. Nobody did much with the patch of grass in between. Now they've moved out, so the grass becomes my problem.

What's the best way to get glass bits out of a lawn? My first-pass guess is a Shop-Vac, preferably rented, but I am 100% open to better ideas. I need to do this before I run a lawn mower over it, obviously.

Thanks!

Shop vac is where I would start as well.

Rain? Time? It's safety glass, right? I suppose you could shop-vac it. Your neighbors are going to think you're nuckin futz.

It will decompose in 1000 years.

Till it in and go on. You can scrape it with a skid steer loader and build the dirt back up. Or shovel. Odds are the safety glass is well.... Safe and small bits.

had a similar situation, raked it out good w/ lawn rake and then shop vacced, short of diggin' it up it worked ok.

I would just mow over it. I doubt safety glass will pop the tires and the mower should mulch any prominent bits up

Wouldn't be any worse than gravel. How would you deal with gravel?

We had a patio table shatter into a grillion pieces and I used a shop vac to get it out.

Does your lawnmower have a bagger attachment?

Go to Lowes and get one of their glass magnets, you'll have it cleaned up in no time.

Thanks for the input. Safety glass is a good point, because not all of the fragments so far have been the nice pebbly stuff. This raises the interesting questions of what else did they break, and what the hell were they doing over there that night?

There are two kinds of people in the world, those who have Shop Vac'd their yard, and those who haven't. Come on over to the dark side, we're waiting. (We don;t have a T-Shirt yet, but we're working on it.)

Is a hatch safety glass? I know windshields are...but the rest?

ALL auto glass is safety glass. It is either tempered (which breaks into tiny harmless pieces), or laminated (which has a layer of plastic in the middle, so it remains in a sheet, but is still relatively harmless). Most curved windows are cast, so tempered.

I have Shop-vac'd my lawn.

I have an old fashioned tool. I think it is called a "Rake" or something. Works really well at getting junk out of the grass.

I am really lazy so I would mow it with a bagger

Looks like you gotta vacuum your lawn

Rain and time won't remove glass. Time will very slowly bury it, but probably not fast enough for your taste (I'd guess 5-10 years to get it all 1mm under dirt).

SVreX wrote: ALL auto glass is safety glass. It is either tempered (which breaks into tiny harmless pieces), or laminated (which has a layer of plastic in the middle, so it remains in a sheet, but is still relatively harmless). Most curved windows are cast, so tempered.

Tempered glass doesn't break into harmless pieces exactly. It's still glass and the pieces are still sharp and can cut you easily. It's just that they aren't large head cutting off razor sharp pieces like plate glass. Break a car window (preferably not yours or your wife's or that or an armed neighbor) and pick up one of the bits; you'll see that the corners are still quite sharp. But they're much safer than the carnage that would happen with plate glass.

read in this guy's voice

So there's glass in your grass?
Is that a problem?

It depends how much glass you've amassed.
Does it cause cuts in your ass
when you fall in the grass?

(Sorry, I should not have said "ass."
That was a bit crass.
I was raised better, and
should show a little class.)

Back to the point: how much glass?
What is the size
of the affected landmass?

When you're outside on your lawn,
does it leave you feeling harrassed?
Constantly burdened,
or does the feeling pass?

Can you dine on your lawn
with your favorite lass
at a picnic repass,
you both raise a wine glass
(Don't drink? brew tea of sassafrass)

But alas! Your point,
I've begun to bypass...
Back to the issue,
how to get rid of the glass.
Your answer may depend,
on the type of your grass.
Things become easy
if it is weeds and crab grass.

If your neighbor's pets,
their goat or jackass
should happen to trespass,
induce them to stay
to eat all your grass.
(then it is easy
to pick up the glass.)

After gathering it up,
toss it in a crevasse.
Or take it to the recycler
(they pay you, based on
the mass of your glass)

Then take a vacation
to a beach with no grass.
Swim in the ocean,
where you'll
see sea bass and some wrasse
and send us a postcard
saying you're happy at last

(Apologies to Theodor Seuss Geisel)

Pass in the grass

but alas, no glass

JoeyM wrote: read in this guy's voice So there's glass in your grass? Is that a problem? (Apologies to Theodor Seuss Geisel)

That was good, but good lord you've got too much time on your hands! Isn't there something that needs fixing around your house?

I was taking a break in the middle of cutting the lawn.

fasted58 wrote: Pass in the grass

Why try to pass in the grass?
Glass in the grass
makes that a difficult pass
(your tires won't last.
A pit stop means
you're no longer fast.)
The sportscast
will broadcast
that you just got bypassed.

This thread, to the dark side, has been cast.