paghat wrote:
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.

With that definition my topsoil may well be very different than your
topsoil.

There is no definition of topsoil other than it is on top.

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.

What standard? Who set it? Who enforces it?

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

--

Travis in Shoreline (just North of Seattle) Washington
USDA Zone 8b
Sunset Zone 5