[jd thomas]

I've already got the soil and sand, and I'm just smoothing out some bumpy areas. Just want to know if I should mix batches by weight, say 40 lbs of each, or by volume, a 5 gallon bucket of each. Because a 5 gallon bucket of sand weighs a good amount more than a 5 gallon bucket of topsoil.

 

[jd thomas]

I appreciate all the replies, but I'm really just wondering as a general rule, not just for my situation. In gardening/landscaping, whenever you see recipes for ratios of stuff being put on a lawn or in a garden bed or wherever, be it topsoil, compost, sand, peat moss, worm castings, cow manure, perlite, etc., is it generally understood that "by volume" is what is meant? I assume so, but I never see it specified as such anywhere.

 

[jd thomas]

It’s not that simple. If you go to a big box store, you’ll generally find supplies in either 1cu foot or bags sized by pounds. Most soil products come recommended in volume (cubic ft or yards) because of the ability to hold water. So you’d need to read the label to see a 50lb bag = .75cuft. In bulk material (quarry) it’s all sold in volume.
But as others have pointed out, if you’re trying to mix materials the ratio blend should match the intended purpose. Your original post said you’re trying create a leveling mix- in that scenario a 1:1 ratio is horrible for leveling. It should be much closer to 8-9:1 all the way up to 100% sand.

OK, so taking your ratio, would a theoretical batch of material be made by combining 9 lbs. of sand with 1 lb. of topsoil? Or 9 shovels of sand with 1 shovel of topsoil? Each of those would give very different results.

 

[jd thomas]

joec - Yes, that's definitely helpful. Thanks for taking the time to post all your stuff. Lawn looks real nice.

I'm not really thinking much about this at all actually. I'm not sitting here wringing my hands and fretting about it. With all these various recipes/ratios for gardens, topdressing lawns, container gardening, etc., you never see anyone specify weight or volume. Granted, for things that generally weigh the same, it won't make much difference. But say sand and peat moss...a bucket of each will have vastly different weights. Everybody who mixes up a batch of whatever must use one of the two methods, so just wanted to know what the default was.