HELP - Lawn on Clay Soil ??
 

Hi All

Last year a layed a new lawn in my front garden (UK) with ex quality turf, the problem is i layed it onto a thin layer topsoil and clay beneath.

It does not respond much to feeding and it soggy winter/cracks up in summer.

I have just started spring maintenance and have cut it back short and scarified so it now looks very sparse/muddy.

I have also just aerated it leaving holes all over.

How can i improve the soil structure ? Some people telling me brushing in sharp sand will make it worse !!

Any ides peeps ? What about claybreaker soil conditioner or calcified seaweed ??

Cheers

HELP - Lawn on Clay Soil ??
 

On Apr 11, 4:05*am, bilabonic
wrote:
Hi All

Last year a layed a new lawn in my front garden (UK) with ex quality
turf, the problem is *i layed it onto a thin layer topsoil and clay
beneath.

It does not respond much to feeding and it soggy winter/cracks up in
summer.

I have just started spring maintenance and have cut it back short and
scarified so it now looks very sparse/muddy.

I have also just aerated it leaving holes all over.

How can i improve the soil structure ? Some people telling me brushing
in sharp sand will make it worse !!

Any ides peeps ? What about claybreaker soil conditioner or calcified
seaweed ??

Cheers

--
bilabonic


You've created a big problem with no easy solution. You should have
worked on fixing the soil BEFORE putting down the new turf. The less
good topsoil you have, the more problems you will have. By doing it
before the grass, you could have tilled in lots of material or
additonal topsoil to correct it. Now, your ability to deal with it
is limited.

The best you can do now is to rake in material after aerating. The
choice of what to use is usually determined by what's available
locally in appropriate quantities and cost. If it's a small area,
then a commercially bagged product could be viable. But for larger
areas, you generally need something available by the truck load.

My first choice would be organic matter, like compost. Here in the
states some municipalities collect leaves in the Fall and turn them
into compost which is available for free. If you have anything like
that available, it can be a good choice. You can also mix in some
sand, but I would focus more on the compost type material.
Unfortunately, you will have to do this many times before you get the
soil to where you want it. And even then, the depth of the ammendment
is not as deep as it would be had you tilled it in upfront.

Buy some bags of top dressing for lawns and brush it into the lawn, it will drop into aeration holes helping to break up the surface and improving drainage and eventually stopping cracking in dry weather. However this will need to be done twice a year if your lawn is particularly bad, in spring and again in autumn. After this process you can then overseed to help prevent bald patches. Tell whoever your buying the top dressing from the size of your lawn and he will tell you how many bags you need.

Buy composted cow manure but just buy a few bags at first because no all are created equal. You are doing things backwards. It will take a while for the additive to get down under so don't expect miracles at first. Do it spring and fall.