In article ghY%d.22081$oa6.14080@trnddc07, "Travis"
wrote:

Danimal wrote:
Two years ago I relandscaped an area of my lawn (in Northern
Indiana) that did not have grass. I added top soil from a local
hardware. The soil looks really dark and loose.

Now two years later I am still having trouble keeping grass in the
area. A few places the grass seems to be well rooted and healthy
but a vast majority of the area is so loose that the grass comes up
in clumps when ever I run a rake over it. Is this called erosion?

I notice however that other parts of my lawn where I planted grass
and *didn't* put in top soil the grass seems to grow better. I
thought I was doing a good thing by adding "top" soil but I am
afraid I have created a hostile environment to the grass seed.

Can I add something to my soil to make it more hospitable for the
grass? Or can I plant a special kind of grass that will root
deeper.

The only other things to note are that it is on a very small incline
(barely perceptable) and it is mostly shaded.


Thanks for your help,
Dannie

The name "top soil" has no meaning. What ever it is you added should
have been tilled in.

Topsoil vs subsoil certainly does have meaning. Sand is not topsoil; clay
is not topsoil; organic mucks of peat or manure are not topsoils, but mix
them all together & you get topsoil. Topsoil is both manufactured by
mixing the ingredients, or obtained by stripping. Stripping is sometimes
done illegally, but usually developers will sell the trees & topsoil to
different companies before building houses or roads, & topsoil stripping
becomes a beneficial salvage operation.

Topsoil is defined as that layer of soil with the most organic matter,
usually six or eight inches deep, the layer of maximum microorganism
activity & plant root development. In eroded or recent construction sites
or places where natural topsoil has been stripped for commercial resale
there may be no topsoil whatsoever. Nature can take one to five centuries
to create each inch of organically rich topsoil, & most of us can't wait
that long.

In regional & national landscape associations topsoil with or without
further ammendments is quite defined as comprising of humus, clay
particles, & sand -- whoever sells a non-topsoil as a topsoil is not
adhering to honest practices outlined by professional soil associations.
Good topsoil would not have to be tilled in, though for good drainage it
is nice to till a bit of the unrestored surface before adding topsoil, or
water may literally flow to the bottom of the topsoil then move sideways
without penetrating the subsoil (especially on slopes); roughing, discing,
scarifying, or tilling a bit of the subsoil insures an immediate bond
between subsoil & newly added topsoil.

Topsoil should already be a suitable growth medium for vegetation. Topsoil
is easily distinguished from subsoil by its darker color, the subsoil
lacking an organic component.

Of course not all soil providers adhere to any reasonable standard & what
people purchase as topsoil sometimes turns out to be dirt (of sand and/or
clay particles) with very little organic matter in it -- tilling that into
more sand & clay wouldn't help much either, but some organic matter tilled
into it could turn it into topsoil.

As for those portions of Dannie's lawn that were planted without topsoil,
there is a bad landscape practice of starting instant-lawns on a newly
laid medium of sand. I don't know how that practice got started but I
think it was a cheap way to gussy up new construction to get a quick green
turf going that only needed to last long enough to sell all the houses, as
such lawns will very soon begin to look thin or matted with winter-end
white fungus. The retroactive fix would be to use a mulch mower so as to
not remove even more of the needed nutrients, & twice a year for the next
several years sprinkle organic matter over the surface of the lawn then
leave it to the worms to mix in, this in addition to all the other
high-maintenence BS a lawn requires. Meadows of native grasses &
wildflowers are preferable.

-paghat the ratgirl
--
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