Laying Turf - Need to rotavate or just feed topsoil before laying
 

I did read the FAQ for this group before posting, the FAQ does not
obviously answer my question.

Some history ...

For the last two weeks we have moved 105tons of material around our
garden, forunately we can get tractors to drive into the garden and dump
loads where needed. At one end where we will have shrubs/borders, we
have 60tons of well rotted muck. The remaining area of 40mx10m, has been
laid and tamped with 2-3" of fine sandy soil on top on subsoil that is
best described as clay. We added 4" diameter land drains too.

The sandy soil has been well smoothed out and is ready for turf to be
rolled out.

We were planning to lay the lawn with turf in a few weeks time, the turf
will come with about 1" of soil from our local supplier.

Some books suggest we should really rotavate the topsoil and mix in
organic matter before laying the lawn. Given the effort to level the
topsoil over the last two weeks I am reluctant to do this, but will do
so if really needed. Thoughts? We had intended really just to feed the
topsoil, then lay the turf and initially keep well watered.

Any advice welcomed.

pzboyz

Janet Baraclough wrote:


After all that tractor traffic, the lawn area is likely to be heavily
compacted. This could be bad news on a clay base. It's not clear how
deep the land drains were laid? They will only carry water away, if the
water can percolate through the soil to reach them.

Janet.

Janet,

Thanks, to be clear, the tractors did not drive over the new topsoil,
and the clay was solid after drying out for a few weeks but I agree
there will have been some amount of compaction.

The whole clay area has been exposed, getting wet, cracking up in the
sun for 2 summers/years, so it is kind of well broken up with a chance
of some water percolation. I have had my sprinklers going for many hours
since the topsoil was down, and have not found any soggy patches yet.

Thoughts?

Also, the sandy soil layer, reaches all the way to the area filled with
muck. The whole site, I forgot to mention, is on a slight incline, maybe
rising 1.2m over a 40m length from front to back.

SW.