How much gasoline did you spill? Gasoline will kill grass pretty quickly. Diluting it will help, but I'm not sure whether 4 buckets of water would be enough. Especially since buckets come in many sizes, and I don't know how much gasoline was spilled. If you spilled a tablespoon of gasoline and poured four 5 gallon buckets of water, you probably won't see any effect. If you spilled 5 gallons of gas and poured four 1/2 gallon buckets, the grass in that area is dead or dying.

I suspect you're somewhere in between my extreme examples. Can you provide some details so we can better answer you?

The first rule is "Contain the spill". The best course now is to remove the contaminated soil and dispose of it in an approved manner. The most convenient is through a Municipal program which will accept home-owner generated hazardous products, no questions asked. Alternatively, you can incorporate some activated charcoal on the site and allow Mother Nature to heal her injury. If it was a gas/oil mix, it will take longer because of the oil.

I've done this in the past when fueling up mower. Yep, It's as good as dead in that spot.
But I don't know what I'd be more upset about at the moment... killing the grass or wasting gas worth $3.25 a gallon!!

After reading the other posts, I think my initial optimism was unfounded. I don't think you can dilute the gas damage effectively by flushing it.

BP, all I think water will do is make the problem worse by driving it deeper and wider into the soil. For an experiment try putting a drop of has in a gallon and water and try to drink it or feed a potted plant with it. Second thought, don't drink it.

TW--That's basically what I realized, and why I posted my follow up mea culpa.

Once it is in the soil, you aren't going to get it back out. It will probably kill the spot. If it was just a little bit, give it a few days, water a bunch and you should be able to get some new grass to grow. If it was a bigger spill, you probably won't be able to grow anything there for a while unless you remove the contaminated soil.

nards01- what happened to that area where u spilled the gas? Cause i just did today and i didnt put any water thinking it might contaminate more of area.
And can anyone tell me how long before the grass will start to grow back?

hi guys

ok well I live in Alaska in the mat/su valley we had our riding lawn mower catch fire because the fuel pump burst spilling a couple gallons in a 3 foot square. I fully expected a dead spot in no time however for some unknown reason to me that spot of the lawn has grown at twice the rate of the rest of the lawn and the grass is a beautiful dark lush green as opposed to the rest which is a dull light green. what's up with this why is it grow better where the gas is then the rest of the yard?

have they started putting fertilizer in the regular unleaded or what?

Battery power mower removes this problem for me! :)

@Harvey As for the fire, did the grass catch fire? If not the gas probably burned before being spilled. If the grass caught fire, guessing it was only the top part,or not at all and you used water to put it out or dilute the area which caused that spot to grow back really well due to more water compared to surrounding area.

Maybe one of the senior members can provide some insight. When I was a kid growing up in St. Louis, Mo, one of our neighbors would burn his lawn every year or so. I can't really remember if he did it in the Fall or Spring but he would burn it all to a crisp with gasoline and a blowtorch. His lawn always grew back in without seeding and was one of the best in the neighborhood.

There's valve cleaning compounds in the gasoline which contain nitrogen.

O yeah it's going to die. What we did at this golf course is organic dish washing soap. It's not going to fix the problem but it will dilute the gas better then just water as water is just going to sped the gas out more.

Do not flush a gasoline spill with water on soil. Gas and water do not mix. You are making it harder for the gas to evaporate and easier for it to sink down to the groundwater and contaminate it. Gasoline also will not evaporate as quickly if it is brought deeper into the soil or down to contaminate groundwater. You're endangering not only yourself as well as your neighbors. Contain the spill, use kitty litter or something similar to absorb the gasoline and a shop vac to pick up the kitty litter. Put the contaminants in a plastic bag and dispose of properly. The grass will grow back eventually and you can help it along by digging out the contaminated area to about 2-3inches and resoil with fresh seed.