New Lawn

Hi all,

Im new to this after buying my first house, We had a small patch of grass surrounded by flower beds, we removed all the plants leveled out with top soil and laid new lawn over the top, it was great last summer

Now its all sunk and the grass has worn away to almost just mud, what have I done wrong? and can it be fixed by top soiling and new lawn on top again which will raise the level back up?

Any help is great thank you

Tom

 

Hi Tom

Sounds like the soil was not quite compacted enough before laying the turf but don’t worry it just needs to be done again.
Robot Check

This is a great book if you want to look after or learn the basics of turf care and if memory serves me right it does include turfing.
You will need to remove the turf you laid and start fresh and level the soil and work at getting it compacted enough so that it does not sink but not too compacted that it effects the turf roots taking into account the finishing height of the turf. You will need more soil too.

 

Hi,
Thats great thank you, I will look at doing it maybe end of april time and when shops open back up for turf, I was worried it was the old flower bed that affected it
I will remove old turf and start again, the garden is very lumpy and just trying to make it flat the best I can to stop scalping the grass with mower

Tom

 

That sounds a great plan, nearer the time post again as quite a few fellow members will gladly help you.
Photos are handy too and you will soon be on track.

 

Hi,

Before seeding or turfing any ground it needs preparing properly to avoid such problems.

Loads of Ytubes on doing just that, even Allan Titmarsh has one.

Very simply put, after digging and adding any extra soil etc you need to rake it flat, then it needs to be rollered or heeled down, so removing all the spongyness from the digging etc.
After that, re-rake, taking off any peaks and filling in the troughs, then repeat the rollering etc.

Then it should be good for new turf, though think you might be a good bit ater April before the suppliers are on the road again, you could use seeds, preparation just the same.

Are you doing lots of walking on it during the winter or is the rain 'ponding' on the surface indicating poor drainage?

 

ricky101, thats brill thank you and No ive not walked on it at all and maybe poor drainage as the water settled once the ground had sunk so pooled there for a while, also in summer alot of the tree bark was on the grass from birds but ive sorted this now with chicken wire

I have attached photos so you can see, you can tell the new grass to old and also not sure you can see the dipping down from the camera angle, around the edges its a good 3inch lower than the other grass you can see where ive scalped it slightly

Thanks

Tom

 

Hi,

Well we would not go digging up what looks like a basically good lawn, we would have thought some careful corrective maintenance would put right most things.

However as @Liz the pot is one of our Lawn gurus ( you can see more of his replies in the Lawn section of the forum) seems he is suggesting you start again with proper soil preparation, so think it best you follow his advice for the best long term results.

 

Ricky101, totally agree 90% of the grass is good its just the edges which are almost mud ( pictures dont show it really) and it sinking

 

Photos were great. Looks far better than I thought from your description. How much is the dip?

The grass looks ok, not that bad to be honest. You could slowly top dress it over a few seasons to bring it up or lift the turf and level it.
The bare sections would just need seeding to be honest if you go for dressing over a few seasons or after lifting and altering height.

if that’s a wooden raised bed the only care would be the end height of the lawn in conjunction with the wood as it would slowly rot it.

The soil on the edges should settle, the sinking is just due to not being compact enough but it will settle.

if it were me and the dip was not huge I would slowly dress the edges over time and seed. Cheaper than ripping up what looks like a fairly good bit of turf.

 

The slope is about 3 inch from the main grass to the wood bottom, I am going to put something around the edge to stop it rotting like a block paving edge maybe,

I have bought the book you recommended so will wait for that to arrive, I have top dressed before but was impatience for results and maybe put too much down and think I killed the grass

 

The secret with dressing is not to cover the grass completely. It will take a number of dressings over a few seasons maybe to bring it up and level rather than in one or two goes but that’s fine.

the books great for learning the basics of lawn care. Part of the fun is learning through mistakes, I don’t mind telling you I made some huge ones when I was learning lawn care.