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Clay Soil Lawn Seeding
Hi,
Ive got a week off next week so im going to attempt to sort out our back garden (god help me) Its currently covered in slabs and some really dodgy crazy paving, along with a plethora of weeds and other unwanted fir trees and stuff. So basically all that is coming out. We have very clayey soil (Luton area) which no doubt has been compacted by the slabs/paving and will have virtually no drainage capabilities. What we want to do is to seed a new lawn with some good quality grass seed. Its about a 6x15m area. My question is about ground preparation. We would like to add about 3 inches of topsoil to this part of the garden to raise it up a bit, but dont know if we have to prepare the clay soil below this. It seems pretty obvious to me that we need to do something to aid drainage all over this area, but im not sure if the 3 inches of topsoil will do this on its own. Is it advisable to dig in a tonne or so of sharp sand to aid in drainage, or is it really not worth it. We are on a pretty tight budget so if we can do without it would be beneficial, but i dont mind spending a bit more on sand just to make sure that we arent going to end up with a bog in winter. Also, any links to hand cultivators in the uk ('Garden Weasel'??) would be helpful, cant really afford to go the whole hog with a rotovator (and i think it would be hard work in our soil anyway, probably just as hard to use a fork/hand cultivator). Many thanks Mark |
#2
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In article .com, "Mark" writes: | | My question is about ground preparation. We would like to add about 3 | inches of topsoil to this part of the garden to raise it up a bit, but | dont know if we have to prepare the clay soil below this. It seems | pretty obvious to me that we need to do something to aid drainage all | over this area, but im not sure if the 3 inches of topsoil will do this | on its own. No, it won't. You must loosen the clay to a foot down at the very least, and that won't be enough if it is really bad. | Is it advisable to dig in a tonne or so of sharp sand to aid in | drainage, or is it really not worth it. We are on a pretty tight budget | so if we can do without it would be beneficial, but i dont mind | spending a bit more on sand just to make sure that we arent going to | end up with a bog in winter. You would be best off NOT buying topsoil for a lawn, but adding the 3" in the form of sharp sand or fine gravel - it is likely to be cheaper, too. Dig it in to the top 6" and sow onto the sand/clay mixture. Regards, Nick Maclaren. |
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