Question
My wife and I moved into a house October 07. It was brand new, with new
sod etc. I got a load of Bonus S on it before it went dormant to help with
weeds. The next spring and summer our yard was very  nice - unfortunately,
there were low spots all over from a torrential downpour before the sod was
put down. You could see the spots where the runoff was the worst.

We spoke to the builder - and asked him to see what could be done. After a
couple months of back and forth - around August las year, he informed us
he'd have his landscape crew come out and top dress the lawn. I came home
that afternoon to see they had used pea gravel, like you would use in a child's
toy box.  o make matters worse it wasn't really raked well.  Anyway - long
story short - I have lots of gravelly parts in my back yard - pretty ugly - its
hard, its brown and only weeds are growing there now.

However - I have a choice - I can spend lots of money and rip it all up and
put new sod down.  Or I can try to top dress it with Dillo Dirt here in Austin.  
The Yard is St Augustine and grows wonderfully in the front (except the two places in front that were "dressed".  If there is a third option, I'd love to hear
it.  Also, is it a common practice to dress with gravel ? I'd heard sand or sandy
loam etc, but never gravel.

stu

Answer
Hi Stuart, What they did was wrong.  I suspect the builder told the guys to "go fill in the holes" in your yard and they should have used soil.  Sand or gravel will either hold too much or too little water and make drought or cold damage more likely.
Removing the gravel would be difficult, so I'd till (or demand the builder to) the whole area and then sod.  You can blend the gravel with your soil and the grass will do fine.  Jim