Hello everyone, I'm a bit new to this computer stuff as well as to gardening. The extent of my gardening knowledge runs to mowing the lawn. Yup that's it i'm afraid.
So I need some advice. Under my patchy uneven rough looking lawn there seems to be nothing but a very sticky gloopy clay like earth that doesn't like to drain and it loves to have the water sit on it all winter long until the sun arrives to evaporate it.
I want to sort it out this year but I'm not sure where to start.
My father in law says the best thing to do is throw bucket loads of sharp sand over the top so I have a good covering and then rotovate the entire thing, roll flat, rake, roll flat, level off and re-seed.
Does this sound like the best course of action to you guys??

On 4/3/06 6:49 AM, in article , "gary
foster" spewed forth this
gibberish...

My father in law says the best thing to do is throw bucket loads of
sharp sand over the top so I have a good covering and then rotovate the
entire thing, roll flat, rake, roll flat, level off and re-seed.
Does this sound like the best course of action to you guys??

I've got the same type of lawn and my plans are to run a core aerator (pulls
little plugs out and makes holes) all over it then seed.. The problem with
our type of soil is that when you mow the lawn, you're back to where you
started as far a the perc value of the ground.

"Michael Keefe" wrote in message
...
On 4/3/06 6:49 AM, in article , "gary
foster" spewed forth this
gibberish...

My father in law says the best thing to do is throw bucket loads of
sharp sand over the top so I have a good covering and then rotovate the
entire thing, roll flat, rake, roll flat, level off and re-seed.
Does this sound like the best course of action to you guys??

I've got the same type of lawn and my plans are to run a core aerator
(pulls
little plugs out and makes holes) all over it then seed.. The problem with
our type of soil is that when you mow the lawn, you're back to where you
started as far a the perc value of the ground.

The core Aerator is a good idea. Go over and over the lawn. Punch lots of
little holes...

Then, get a substantial amount of peat moss or good topsoil and rake into
the lawn. It'll sift down into the holes and will improve the soil.

Of course, it'll take several of these treatments to fix a clay lawn.

It might be just as easy to do it once by tilling in a couple of inches of
compost and sand. At least you could do it once and be done with it.

KB

gary foster wrote:
Hello everyone, I'm a bit new to this computer stuff as well as to
gardening. The extent of my gardening knowledge runs to mowing the
lawn. Yup that's it i'm afraid.
So I need some advice. Under my patchy uneven rough looking lawn there
seems to be nothing but a very sticky gloopy clay like earth that
doesn't like to drain and it loves to have the water sit on it all
winter long until the sun arrives to evaporate it.
I want to sort it out this year but I'm not sure where to start.
My father in law says the best thing to do is throw bucket loads of
sharp sand over the top so I have a good covering and then rotovate the
entire thing, roll flat, rake, roll flat, level off and re-seed.
Does this sound like the best course of action to you guys??

How many square feet is it, Gary?

What is your location Gary?



"gary foster" wrote in message
...

Hello everyone, I'm a bit new to this computer stuff as well as to
gardening. The extent of my gardening knowledge runs to mowing the
lawn. Yup that's it i'm afraid.
So I need some advice. Under my patchy uneven rough looking lawn there
seems to be nothing but a very sticky gloopy clay like earth that
doesn't like to drain and it loves to have the water sit on it all
winter long until the sun arrives to evaporate it.
I want to sort it out this year but I'm not sure where to start.
My father in law says the best thing to do is throw bucket loads of
sharp sand over the top so I have a good covering and then rotovate the
entire thing, roll flat, rake, roll flat, level off and re-seed.
Does this sound like the best course of action to you guys??


--
gary foster

http://axp.ipm.ucdavis.edu/TOOLS/TURF/
http://www.ucanr.org/findinformation.cfm?findinfosub=6

I notice that you're in the UK. While the weather is different, the basics
on how to fix your lawn are the same. HTH
"gary foster" wrote in message
...

Hello everyone, I'm a bit new to this computer stuff as well as to
gardening. The extent of my gardening knowledge runs to mowing the
lawn. Yup that's it i'm afraid.
So I need some advice. Under my patchy uneven rough looking lawn there
seems to be nothing but a very sticky gloopy clay like earth that
doesn't like to drain and it loves to have the water sit on it all
winter long until the sun arrives to evaporate it.
I want to sort it out this year but I'm not sure where to start.
My father in law says the best thing to do is throw bucket loads of
sharp sand over the top so I have a good covering and then rotovate the
entire thing, roll flat, rake, roll flat, level off and re-seed.
Does this sound like the best course of action to you guys??


--
gary foster