"jacobsdad" wrote in message
...

Hi all, this is my first post, so be gentle!

I moved into my first home in August 2005 and the garden was a concrete
jungle - paving slabs etc. so I decided that as well as planting some
flower boxes I would lay some turf. I know nothing about gardening but
wanted to be a bit more green.

I took up an area 3m x 5m of paying slabs to find about 8 inches of
sand underneath. Because I live in a town house, it wasn't practical to
dispose of the sand so I simply visited B&Q and brough enough turf to
cover the area of, now levelled, sand.

The next day I spoke to a friend who said there was no chance of the
grass surviving on sand. I was a bit upset by that notion but have
continued to water the lawn and today have cut the now very thick, long
and green grass (it's been 2 months since I laid it). It appears to have
knitted together very well and looks healthy (although I know little
about these things). I have not fed it yet as the plant food labels are
against this for the first 6 months of laying the turf. I have tried to
uproot the turf on a corner to see if it has rooted - the result is
that I actually can't pull up the turf easily becuase it has rooted so
well.

When I cut it today I left the cuttings on the lawn (this is called
"mulching" so I understand and helps?).

My question is 1.) do you think it will survive all year and, 2.)
should I feed it now? Any tips would be brill.

Thanks,

JACOBSDAD.


What type of grass did you plant? Some have deeper roots than others.
Given your climate, I imagine you'll get enough rain to allow the sod to
survive. The key to long term success for you is infrequent, deep waterings.
The idea is to get the roots to go deep. Frequent waterings will encourage
shallow roots, which is what you'd like to avoid.

Feeding is good. Use a fertilizer with a medium to low nitrogen content and
high content of the other components. Again, this will promote root growth
over blade growth.