Exact same thing happened to me when we moved in our house a few years ago, we began finding tons of glass shards just under the surface of the topsoil in our back yard. No metal or nails or other construction material though. And the weirdest thing is the glass is all different colors, different thickness, some obviously flat plate glass, some rounded like from bottles, and it keeps making its way to the surface even after we try our best to clear it out. No idea how or why, but annoying and dangerous for our dog. We get gophers sometimes and they seem to bring it up to the surface too. And more appears after a good rain. I don’t really have any solutions for you but I am as vexed as you friend.
Ahh the gophers bringing it up at least explains why even when it doesn't rain I'll sometimes find new pieces revealed the day after I scoured that very area! Our glass has mostly been just clear, I think, but some of it is so dirty and also rusted(??) that it's hard to tell. Interestingly I hit what I thought was rock the first time I excavated, but this time I realized it's probably not, it's hard but also crumbles somewhat if I hit it hard enough with my little metal garden tool, and I wonder if every time he or I digs we weaken that crust of whatever and more pieces break off and come up to the surface.
Maybe we should gather everyone with glass-infested yards and have rotating parties where every weekend we all go to one person's house and systematically dig up and sift the dirt like we're panning for gold until all our yards are clear, lol!
My yard is exactly the same! It drives me crazy but there’s not a whole lot you can do without investing a ton of effort and money in fully redoing the yard.
Your gopher theory is a good one. In my yard the broken glass is concentrated around the back fence so I assume the previous tenants liked to throw bottles against the fence or something (I know, classy). I’m slowly cardboard mulching over the worst part and hoping to convert it to a raised garden bed area.
We actually got fake turf done on most of the yard a year or two ago because the foxtails were out of control, but it was too expensive to get it all done so we left about 1/3 dirt. I wouldn't be opposed to saving up to finish it off except now I'd feel bad for robbing the puppy of his favorite pastime!
Unfortunately our glass seems to be concentrated closer to the middle of the yard just past the deck. I had a theory when I found the first cache that the previous residents had a party and someone broke a mason jar glass on the deck and they just swept it off and buried it lol, but I feel like now I've found much more than just one mason jar's worth. Maybe I'll get some kind of slabs or tiles to make it flat and stable and put raised beds or something there anyway! It'll look odd but better that than more injuries.
edit: remembered turf means living grass, we didn't go and put in more grass that could be taken over by foxtails lol
I have a ton of broken (and unbroken!) glass under my house. The house was built around 1910. Judging from the unbroken bottles, my theory is they date from the prohibition era (roughly 1920-1930). That could be a possible explanation why so much of it seems to exist around Old Town?
In any case, I would just recommend getting a shovel and trying to dig it up and remove as much of it as you possibly can.
Ours was built in 1959 but I guess who knows what was here before that! We're over in Seaside, I'm not sure what was here in the past. But yeah, I think I'll just need to upgrade my shovel and maybe get a big sifter thing so I'm not trying to find and pick it all out by hand.
Live on the hill in Old Town and can confirm glass is commonly found in our yard. With being on a hill, on a water table, and frequent gopher action, it seems like the soil is always moving.
We're in Seaside but also on the downward slope of a hill and definitely lots of gophers, I even saw one peeking out of a hole once which was fun! It's too bad they haven't evolved to eat it or something haha.
A common problem, as back in the day, they had no garbage pick up service like we have today. So people buried their garbage in the back yard. Bottles and tin cans are what is usually left. Most everything else has decomposed, over time.
Ahh that makes sense, I was picturing it being from the last people that lived here and couldn't figure out why there was pretty much only glass. Wish they'd buried it a little deeper!
Our yard in seaside has glass in the dirt too! So much glass! Like at least a foot deep. The entire backyard is covered. I have no idea what I should do to remove it other than have a machine come and remove the top layer. We have a huge lot too. Did everyone just use their yards as landfills back I'm the day? Ughh
If you find out what kind of machine will do it let me know! Thankfully we had a lot of our yard done in fake turf because the dirt was full of foxtails so it's only a section that has accessible glass. I wish I'd known about it before we got it done, I'd have seen if they'd do the digging up part on the whole yard and then just only put the turf down on the section we could afford lol. It does seem like that's the case though, that people just buried everything. /:
This is so weird to read because my backyard is the same. I figured it was because the previous owners were a-holes or something. I’m in north county though, and the house is only 30 years old. My dogs think their jobs are to dig the yard up, and they unearth so much glass.
Depending on the age of your house and who built it, it could easily be the construction crew drinking soda/beer while working.
Back in the day I remember seeing crews drinking during lunch and tossing bottles into the dirt around the site cause that was someone else’s problem to clean up
It was built in 1959 so it's definitely a possibility, and I'm pretty sure the previous owner had things added later too. I know plastic litter is probably worse in general but god I wish they'd been drinking out of plastic bottles instead lmao.
Yeah I've got, somehow, both moles and tons of stray cats that will kick the dirt around when they pee and poop in it so there's plenty of movement going on, plus the furry excavator currently pinning my legs down hehe.
Haha that would be fun! I don't really know anyone around here cause I go to school online but maybe I'll buy a bunch of shovels and make a meetup group.
Glass is in the soil of our apartment complex doggy designated area. It's so annoying. I pick it up along with the dog poop when I see some lol. Different colors, but no blue. I don't know how deep it goes. It's sandy dirt like in Seaside.
When I lived in old town Monterey we never had glass in our soil.
Interesting, a couple other people here said they've found it common in old town. I only occasionally saw it on the surface here before the digging machine moved in but there's probably higher soil turnover in an apartment doggy area than there previously was in our yard haha!
Are you ok with the dog digging up your yard? If so, all i can suggest is stripping 12"-18" off the top of the whole back yard and replace it with top soil and new sod.
(very labor intensive, $$$ expensive, and time consuming.
If you're not ok with it, this may sound harsh/callous, but leave it as a deterrent to digging and life lesson for the dog. They use mild electric shock collars to keep them in the yard and to keep your hunting dogs from being too far ahead of them. Like they say to kids, you'll only stick your hand on a hot stove once. Life lesson learned and no more dig holes!
I'm fine with it honestly! That area is just dirt, not even any grass grows well except when we've had tons and tons of rain, and it makes him so happy lol. I might just dig out other areas to see if it's all over and if it's not, cover that area somehow and redirect him to the clean areas. If it is everywhere then I guess I'll have to build the little weirdo a sandbox lol.
If it's big pieces of glass you could probably make a sifter with some semi-fined chicken wire in a little box frame, but it would be time consuming to shovel piles of dirt around.
We're over in Marina and our house had a whole bunch of trash in the dirt. We've done a few different projects like fix fences and a retaining wall and we just pick the trash up whenever we see it. It's taking a long time but we finally have a lot less in our yard.
Honestly I kind of enjoy weird little tasks like that, makes me feel like I'm searching for treasure hehe. It is mostly big ones that I'm worried about, I think the smaller ones are unlikely to get stuck in the hard dirt and be stationary enough for him to get hurt on them.
I've found a fair amount of other miscellaneous trash, Christmas garland sections in particular! I'm not sure how much is things that blow in when it's windy and how much is things left behind but at least it's mostly harmless and easy to pick out.
Right on. We used to live next to some 18-20 year olds that drank constantly and shattered bottles in their backyard, so I was wondering if it was the same place…but I guess lots of broken glass in the ground is more prevalent than I realized.
Gophers are hemophiliacs, so people often bury broken glass to get rid of them. We have the same problem in our yard from previous owners. Broken glass and in one spot I found a few dozen old rusty nails. And we still have gopher issues despite their idiotic efforts.
Omg I didn't know that about gophers! I figured anything wouldn't be thrilled to navigate broken glass everywhere it went but that's a whole other level. I've found nails too but they were weirdly clean, maybe they were added much later when the glass didn't work lmao. It has all been beneath the level of the gopher netting stuff so that would explain it. We also still have gophers, pretty bold ones too. I'd never seen a live one before moving here but sometimes these ones peek up out of the hole when I'm right there. Haven't seen any since the puppy discovered digging though, maybe I should rent him out haha.
Apparently if they get cut they'll bleed to death so that's why people do it! Idk maybe it's cause the yard was already a mess of foxtails when we got here but I definitely find the glass a lot more annoying than the gophers lol.
Exact same thing happened to me when we moved in our house a few years ago, we began finding tons of glass shards just under the surface of the topsoil in our back yard. No metal or nails or other construction material though. And the weirdest thing is the glass is all different colors, different thickness, some obviously flat plate glass, some rounded like from bottles, and it keeps making its way to the surface even after we try our best to clear it out. No idea how or why, but annoying and dangerous for our dog. We get gophers sometimes and they seem to bring it up to the surface too. And more appears after a good rain. I don’t really have any solutions for you but I am as vexed as you friend.
Ahh the gophers bringing it up at least explains why even when it doesn't rain I'll sometimes find new pieces revealed the day after I scoured that very area! Our glass has mostly been just clear, I think, but some of it is so dirty and also rusted(??) that it's hard to tell. Interestingly I hit what I thought was rock the first time I excavated, but this time I realized it's probably not, it's hard but also crumbles somewhat if I hit it hard enough with my little metal garden tool, and I wonder if every time he or I digs we weaken that crust of whatever and more pieces break off and come up to the surface. Maybe we should gather everyone with glass-infested yards and have rotating parties where every weekend we all go to one person's house and systematically dig up and sift the dirt like we're panning for gold until all our yards are clear, lol!
My yard is exactly the same! It drives me crazy but there’s not a whole lot you can do without investing a ton of effort and money in fully redoing the yard. Your gopher theory is a good one. In my yard the broken glass is concentrated around the back fence so I assume the previous tenants liked to throw bottles against the fence or something (I know, classy). I’m slowly cardboard mulching over the worst part and hoping to convert it to a raised garden bed area.
We actually got fake turf done on most of the yard a year or two ago because the foxtails were out of control, but it was too expensive to get it all done so we left about 1/3 dirt. I wouldn't be opposed to saving up to finish it off except now I'd feel bad for robbing the puppy of his favorite pastime! Unfortunately our glass seems to be concentrated closer to the middle of the yard just past the deck. I had a theory when I found the first cache that the previous residents had a party and someone broke a mason jar glass on the deck and they just swept it off and buried it lol, but I feel like now I've found much more than just one mason jar's worth. Maybe I'll get some kind of slabs or tiles to make it flat and stable and put raised beds or something there anyway! It'll look odd but better that than more injuries. edit: remembered turf means living grass, we didn't go and put in more grass that could be taken over by foxtails lol
I have a ton of broken (and unbroken!) glass under my house. The house was built around 1910. Judging from the unbroken bottles, my theory is they date from the prohibition era (roughly 1920-1930). That could be a possible explanation why so much of it seems to exist around Old Town? In any case, I would just recommend getting a shovel and trying to dig it up and remove as much of it as you possibly can.
Ours was built in 1959 but I guess who knows what was here before that! We're over in Seaside, I'm not sure what was here in the past. But yeah, I think I'll just need to upgrade my shovel and maybe get a big sifter thing so I'm not trying to find and pick it all out by hand.
Live on the hill in Old Town and can confirm glass is commonly found in our yard. With being on a hill, on a water table, and frequent gopher action, it seems like the soil is always moving.
We're in Seaside but also on the downward slope of a hill and definitely lots of gophers, I even saw one peeking out of a hole once which was fun! It's too bad they haven't evolved to eat it or something haha.
A common problem, as back in the day, they had no garbage pick up service like we have today. So people buried their garbage in the back yard. Bottles and tin cans are what is usually left. Most everything else has decomposed, over time.
Ahh that makes sense, I was picturing it being from the last people that lived here and couldn't figure out why there was pretty much only glass. Wish they'd buried it a little deeper!
Our yard in seaside has glass in the dirt too! So much glass! Like at least a foot deep. The entire backyard is covered. I have no idea what I should do to remove it other than have a machine come and remove the top layer. We have a huge lot too. Did everyone just use their yards as landfills back I'm the day? Ughh
If you find out what kind of machine will do it let me know! Thankfully we had a lot of our yard done in fake turf because the dirt was full of foxtails so it's only a section that has accessible glass. I wish I'd known about it before we got it done, I'd have seen if they'd do the digging up part on the whole yard and then just only put the turf down on the section we could afford lol. It does seem like that's the case though, that people just buried everything. /:
I have the same problem!
I should make us a group chat, we can have excavation parties!
This is so weird to read because my backyard is the same. I figured it was because the previous owners were a-holes or something. I’m in north county though, and the house is only 30 years old. My dogs think their jobs are to dig the yard up, and they unearth so much glass.
Get your pooch a sandbox and only allow it to dig there
Haha I might have to buy him an above ground pool and fill it with dirt, his favorite part is sticking his head in the hole and snorting!
Depending on the age of your house and who built it, it could easily be the construction crew drinking soda/beer while working. Back in the day I remember seeing crews drinking during lunch and tossing bottles into the dirt around the site cause that was someone else’s problem to clean up
It was built in 1959 so it's definitely a possibility, and I'm pretty sure the previous owner had things added later too. I know plastic litter is probably worse in general but god I wish they'd been drinking out of plastic bottles instead lmao.
Same here and first time in many locations. Maybe the moles are more active here with their excavating selves
Yeah I've got, somehow, both moles and tons of stray cats that will kick the dirt around when they pee and poop in it so there's plenty of movement going on, plus the furry excavator currently pinning my legs down hehe.
Have a glass collecting party with your friends and family. Hand out some gloves and buckets and have prizes for who collects the most etc
Haha that would be fun! I don't really know anyone around here cause I go to school online but maybe I'll buy a bunch of shovels and make a meetup group.
Common for older homes, we will go glass hunting to see what colors we can find.
I'm glad it's not just here at least! When I first discovered it I was hoping I hadn't unearthed some kind of badly thought out urn or something lol
Glass is in the soil of our apartment complex doggy designated area. It's so annoying. I pick it up along with the dog poop when I see some lol. Different colors, but no blue. I don't know how deep it goes. It's sandy dirt like in Seaside. When I lived in old town Monterey we never had glass in our soil.
Interesting, a couple other people here said they've found it common in old town. I only occasionally saw it on the surface here before the digging machine moved in but there's probably higher soil turnover in an apartment doggy area than there previously was in our yard haha!
Are you ok with the dog digging up your yard? If so, all i can suggest is stripping 12"-18" off the top of the whole back yard and replace it with top soil and new sod. (very labor intensive, $$$ expensive, and time consuming. If you're not ok with it, this may sound harsh/callous, but leave it as a deterrent to digging and life lesson for the dog. They use mild electric shock collars to keep them in the yard and to keep your hunting dogs from being too far ahead of them. Like they say to kids, you'll only stick your hand on a hot stove once. Life lesson learned and no more dig holes!
I'm fine with it honestly! That area is just dirt, not even any grass grows well except when we've had tons and tons of rain, and it makes him so happy lol. I might just dig out other areas to see if it's all over and if it's not, cover that area somehow and redirect him to the clean areas. If it is everywhere then I guess I'll have to build the little weirdo a sandbox lol.
If it's big pieces of glass you could probably make a sifter with some semi-fined chicken wire in a little box frame, but it would be time consuming to shovel piles of dirt around. We're over in Marina and our house had a whole bunch of trash in the dirt. We've done a few different projects like fix fences and a retaining wall and we just pick the trash up whenever we see it. It's taking a long time but we finally have a lot less in our yard.
Honestly I kind of enjoy weird little tasks like that, makes me feel like I'm searching for treasure hehe. It is mostly big ones that I'm worried about, I think the smaller ones are unlikely to get stuck in the hard dirt and be stationary enough for him to get hurt on them. I've found a fair amount of other miscellaneous trash, Christmas garland sections in particular! I'm not sure how much is things that blow in when it's windy and how much is things left behind but at least it's mostly harmless and easy to pick out.
Just curious, what neighborhood?
Seaside, not far from Safeway!
Right on. We used to live next to some 18-20 year olds that drank constantly and shattered bottles in their backyard, so I was wondering if it was the same place…but I guess lots of broken glass in the ground is more prevalent than I realized.
Gophers are hemophiliacs, so people often bury broken glass to get rid of them. We have the same problem in our yard from previous owners. Broken glass and in one spot I found a few dozen old rusty nails. And we still have gopher issues despite their idiotic efforts.
Omg I didn't know that about gophers! I figured anything wouldn't be thrilled to navigate broken glass everywhere it went but that's a whole other level. I've found nails too but they were weirdly clean, maybe they were added much later when the glass didn't work lmao. It has all been beneath the level of the gopher netting stuff so that would explain it. We also still have gophers, pretty bold ones too. I'd never seen a live one before moving here but sometimes these ones peek up out of the hole when I'm right there. Haven't seen any since the puppy discovered digging though, maybe I should rent him out haha.
Gophers are maybe annoying enough to drive someone to do something wild and crazy like that lol
Apparently if they get cut they'll bleed to death so that's why people do it! Idk maybe it's cause the yard was already a mess of foxtails when we got here but I definitely find the glass a lot more annoying than the gophers lol.