How to Grow Grass in Bad Soil

Walk through the yard picking up twigs, rocks and other debris. Place debris in a wheelbarrow to throw away. Spray weeds with an herbicide that contains glyphosate. Reapply the glyphosate on weeds left standing in 10 days. Glyphosate kills weeds without leaving toxic soil residue that impedes on grass growth.

Dig up the first 4 inches of fill or topsoil. Start at one end of the yard and work your way to the end to help you figure out what areas have had the top soil removed.

Break up the lawn dirt with a rototiller. Rototillers are machines that have teeth or shanks that break up the soil. Fill the rototiller up with gasoline on a surface away from the soil. Push the rototiller back and forth across the lawn. Gardeners who do not own rototillers can rent them at local gardening supply stores.

Spread 2 inches of builder's sand on the lawn. Builder's sand increases drainage. Push the rototiller across the lawn to incorporate the sand with the lawn dirt.

Apply 2 inches of compost to the soil. Incorporate the compost with the rototiller. Compost contributes nutrients to bad soil.

Distribute a starter fertilizer to the soil that contains a higher percentage of phosphorous. Use a starter fertilizer that has a nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium amount such as 5-20-10 at a rate of 20 lbs. per 1,000 square feet. Work the starter fertilizer into the first 2 to 3 inches of topsoil.