How should I fix my yard where we ran power and water out to the barn?

[quicksandfarmer]

Depends on what you mean by fix.

Last summer I went to a presentation at the local historical society where they brought in a professor from the archeology department of a nearby university. He talked about how ground penetrating radar has revolutionized archeological fieldwork. He said that when you dig a hole and fill it in, the filled soil is denser and holds more water than the surrounding soil. And it will remain that way for hundreds if not thousands of years. He told us that last summer in Europe there was a drought, and archeologists were able to find the outlines of buildings that were thousands of years old because all the vegetation died, except where the soil had been disturbed and was wetter.

My house was built in 1976. In the winter there is a green stripe in the grass where the trench that holds the power and phone lines goes. The grass there goes less dormant because the soil is wetter.

So you will never perfectly hide where you dug up. The most you can hope for is to level it up. You want it to be compacted so it doesn't settle any more, and for grass you want the top couple of inches to be good soil. I would put everything that came out of the hole back into it, then pack it in, then top it with topsoil.

 

[Oldoak]

With all the rain, I would wait for better soil conditions, dryer weather, to make any permanent repairs. Trying to rework it when it is too wet will only cause you to have a bigger mess.

If you have to wait until next year, I would seed it down with annual rye, scatter some hay over it, and call it good for now. I say annual rye because it will dye off and when you make permanent restoration, you can reseed it with grass seed to match the existing grass in your yard.