"Rats" wrote in message
...
Hi all,

I have some questions about spreading topsoil and planting grass.

I have recently taken ownership of my new house which was built from
scratch. During the building process almost all the topsoil was
excavated and what I am now left with is exposed clay. This clay is
now starting to harden rapidly as summer approaches here in NZ.

rats. Really, the wrong time of year mate to be planting an entire new lawn.
Unless you want to be religiously outside morning and evening right through
summer watering your new lawn, it likely won't last. The grass won't have
had time to put down roots properly to survive the summer heat in Jan
through March. Also, depending where you are, we had a massive drought in
parts of the country (here in the Waikato especially) and you may be faced
with hose bans as well.

Best time to lay a new lawn is march-april with th onset of autumn rains but
before the soils cools down too quickly. You can certainly do the levelling
work now and with a bit of luck some rian through december will help the
soil settle in a little bit.

Do you need the lawn through summer? If not, you can do the hard work now
and seed in autumn.

rob