Grass

[baldkev]

Hi, i have a grass problem ( garden variety )
About 3 years ago i did some work in our garden moving a bank and levelling. I had a mini digger and power barrow in there.
Once the soil was level, i raked over it and laid turf, watered etc...
It took hold just fine. With last years heat, the majority of it died off, plus it does tend to get waterlogged despite being on a hill. I think i must have comoacted the ground using the machines and now it doesnt drain well. Ive been round with a fork punching holes in the garden at the start of last year, but no change other than the heat finally killing it.

At the moment we have a mud bath, not a garden.... whats best? Do i get a rotavator and churn it up? Then new turf?

Im not green fingered in the slightest, i even manage to kill mint plants each year

 

[eribaMotters]

We are also on Devon, a new build bungalow in Hatherleigh on virgin land at the side of a country lane. At the start of the week with the grass about 100 -125 mm long I finally managed to give it a cut as it was dry and the grass was wet but firm, but not all over. A couple of hours later the rain was back and by the evening we were looking at flooded areas again.
Like you our land has been compacted by the building, but the builder did put 150 - 200 mm of [poor] topsoil down before he seeded. This combined with the heavy clay underneath, the run off from other land and our 120-130% of the national rainfall average means we are onto a looser. Also you now have little grass and therefore nothing living to break up the soil and let air in, so get no better.
You could dig the whole lot up by going down 450mm, import 100's of tons of well drained soil and lay land drain system, or do what we are going to try.
Do not use a fork on the lad as you are compacting the soil around each prong, use a scarifier that will cut tracks into the earth like ploughing small groves. We bought this model for our last house:-
https://www.vonhaus.com/vh_en/2-in-...5805&msclkid=ca602d55ea2216aa7993497ca3cf38a5Now the air temp is mostly over 8c it is safe to re-seed the garden. Wait until things are a little drier, but the soil is still moist and the seed should have good conditions to grow.
At the end of the year I'm going to top dress the lawn with a mixture of grit and compost. I'm going to get advice from the green keeper where I will be playing bowls this year. I will not use my 2 in 1 scarifier-raker above in this first year as it will pull out the new grass. I know this from previous experience.

Colin

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[Adam W.]

Hi, i have a grass problem ( garden variety )
About 3 years ago i did some work in our garden moving a bank and levelling. I had a mini digger and power barrow in there.
Once the soil was level, i raked over it and laid turf, watered etc...
It took hold just fine. With last years heat, the majority of it died off, plus it does tend to get waterlogged despite being on a hill. I think i must have comoacted the ground using the machines and now it doesnt drain well. Ive been round with a fork punching holes in the garden at the start of last year, but no change other than the heat finally killing it.

At the moment we have a mud bath, not a garden.... whats best? Do i get a rotavator and churn it up? Then new turf?

Im not green fingered in the slightest, i even manage to kill mint plants each year

You probably went and stabbed it to death with that there fork.

 

[Jacob]

I had similar prob with a neighbour in a new house who couldn't get the grass growing in compacted earth.
He'd been trying everything for several years, regular mowing, weed killing etc etc.
I said to just leave it alone, not cut the grass until it was longish, just 2 or 3 times a year max and only cut to 2", leave cuttings in place, not to weed kill or anything.
It worked and two years on it looked really healthy.
Weeds are good they tend to be deep rooted and drain and tone up the soil, especially dandelions. Cuttings are good they provide cover and slow down drying and encourage worms, which also help drainage. The two of them plus cuttings left, adds fertiliser to the top soil
Let nature takes its course and you hardly have to lift a finger or spend a penny! Which is why you never see bare earth in the natural environment except briefly, or deserts.

PS and learn to love moss. It makes an excellent lawn in itself, protects the soil, but the grass grows through and overtakes by early summer.
My own lawn was 75% moss a few weeks back but is now looking a lot greener as the grass comes through. Different now it is fertile - cuttings have to be taken off instead and used elsewhere as mulch or compost. There'll be a big burst of dandelions shortly - I leave them alone!

 

[fezman]

loads of videos on youtube at the minute @baldkev . the usual treatment at this time of year is to kill off the moss with iron sulphate, scarify, topdress and overseed. If you do have soil compaction you might want to hollow tine the lawn before you topdress. This is much different to spiking as it removes approx 10mm thick tines from the lawn and provides space for air and remaining soil to spread.

Just about to do mine as it is full of moss and the soil here is very clay based.



If you do decide to hollow tine - you can hire the machines he uses. The manual ones are pretty dire. My lawn is quite small, so i will be using the dire variety

When you do the above it will look a dogs dinner for 2-4 weeks, but then you will see the benefit.

 

[Molynoox]

I quite like Daniel hibbert on YouTube.
If it's still draining really bad after the tines etc then you may need drainage underneath the turf, some pea gravel or something. That's a bigger job though.

 

[baldkev]

Thanks for the replies, I'll check the link tbis evening ( we are off out now )
I was leaning towards turf as it's an instant lawn and will keep the mrs quiet ( well it'll be one less problem )

 

[fezman]

well that spurred me on. Just had a couple of hours on the lawn, cutting, light scarify, weed/feed/moss kill. Plan is to hollow tine and then heavy scarify next week, followed by top dress and overseed.

Also +1 for Daniel Hibbert too.

 

[paulrbarnard]

No problems at my current house but a previous one had some problems. It was new(ish) build and we were the second owners. One area of the garden has poor grass it never grew as well as elsewhere so we decided a flowerbed would fix the problem. I started digging and a couple of inches down I hit builders sand. It was about two feet thick! As I extended the area the sand turned to cement. Yes I inherited the builders mixing area. They literally just put a couple of inches of top soil over it. I had to dig it all out and as I went I found a stack of six bags of cement still on a pallet. I did continue farther in the hopes of finding the mixer but it seems they did take that with them.

 

[Adam W.]

That's Shepton for you, I'm surprised you didn't open up a hole to the bowels of the earth with all that digging.

 

[Doug71]

No problems at my current house but a previous one had some problems. It was new(ish) build and we were the second owners. One area of the garden has poor grass it never grew as well as elsewhere so we decided a flowerbed would fix the problem. I started digging and a couple of inches down I hit builders sand. It was about two feet thick! As I extended the area the sand turned to cement. Yes I inherited the builders mixing area. They literally just put a couple of inches of top soil over it. I had to dig it all out and as I went I found a stack of six bags of cement still on a pallet. I did continue farther in the hopes of finding the mixer but it seems they did take that with them.

Sounds like some new builds near me, I watched the builder just rolling the turf out over the site without any preparation at all, there were empty cement bags, coke cans etc under it, looked nice but no way it would be growing.

I'm clueless when it comes to gardening and find this website helpful for my lawn, it has lots of videos on lawn care and sells all the products.

https://www.lawnsmith.co.uk/

 

[Jacob]

Thanks for the replies, I'll check the link tbis evening ( we are off out now )
I was leaning towards turf as it's an instant lawn and will keep the mrs quiet ( well it'll be one less problem )

Turf is instant lawn but you have to water it thoroughly whenever the weather gets dry, for the first summer at least until it gets established, or it can dry up and shrivel in a couple of hot days.

 

[baldkev]

Turf is instant lawn but you have to water it thoroughly whenever the weather gets dry, for the first summer at least until it gets established, or it can dry up and shrivel in a couple of hot days.

Yep, when I laid it after the groundworks i watered it regularly, but that was towards the end of a summer

 

[Jameshow]

Why not dig it over (with the digger if you must) rotivate and put in a couple of tonnes sand which will help it drain. I wouldn't put the cut turf in tbh I'd chuck it as the sand will replace it and maintain the levels. If you turn it over it's a pig to get level again... DAMHIK...

 

[baldkev]

Is the general feeling that i shouldnt rotavate?

 

[baldkev]

I wouldn't put the cut turf in tbh I'd chuck it as the sand will replace it and maintain the levels. If you turn it over it's a pig to get level again... DAMHIK...

As in rotavate? Theres only really grass on one bit now, the rest is just mud....

 

[Pabs]

Hi, i have a grass problem ( garden variety )
About 3 years ago i did some work in our garden moving a bank and levelling. I had a mini digger and power barrow in there.
Once the soil was level, i raked over it and laid turf, watered etc...
It took hold just fine. With last years heat, the majority of it died off, plus it does tend to get waterlogged despite being on a hill. I think i must have comoacted the ground using the machines and now it doesnt drain well. Ive been round with a fork punching holes in the garden at the start of last year, but no change other than the heat finally killing it.

At the moment we have a mud bath, not a garden.... whats best? Do i get a rotavator and churn it up? Then new turf?

Im not green fingered in the slightest, i even manage to kill mint plants each year

what is the strata there Kev - Clay? chalk?

 

[Tris]

In this situation I'd want to dig a hole about 18 inches deep in the worst spot to check the soil profile. If the soil is clay and has been compacted then rotovating wil form a smeared surface, or pan, which wil result in the gardening equivalent of stirring porridge in a bowl. To do it right I'd be expecting to double dig, adding organic matter as I go, then leave it to settle for a couple of weeks before raking and turfing

 

[baldkev]

what is the strata there Kev - Clay? chalk?

Mud

In this situation I'd want to dig a hole about 18 inches deep in the worst spot to check the soil profile. If the soil is clay and has been compacted then rotovating wil form a smeared surface, or pan, which wil result in the gardening equivalent of stirring porridge in a bowl. To do it right I'd be expecting to double dig, adding organic matter as I go, then leave it to settle for a couple of weeks before raking and turfing

Ok, thanks. We dug down about 18" to sink in a cable and it was just 'soil'
I'm not into mud so i cant really define its composition, but it wasnt shillet, we arent in a chalky area and it seemed like bog standard mud

Tris, when you say double dig......

 

[Pabs]

if it's clay you can also dig in some grit / hardcore etc to help aerate it.
Trouble is if you don't add structure to it it will compact down again quicker