About the Landscape Juice Network

Founded in 2008. The Landscape Juice Network (LJN) is the largest and fastest growing professional landscaping and horticultural association in the United Kingdom.

LJN's professional business forum is unrivalled and open to anyone within within the UK landscape industry

LJN's Business Objectives Group (BOG) is for any Pro serious about building their business.

For the researching visitor there's a wealth of landscaping ideas, garden design ideas, lawn advice tips and advice about garden maintenance.

Preparing new build garden with heavy soil for turf

I have a small turfing job (75square metres) in the back garden of a new build. We've cleared all the weeds and the usual ton of rubble, rubbish etc buried by the builders. The soil is quite heavy and needs some improvement and rotovating. What is the currrent thinking on what to dig in? Sharp sand, compost, grit? A combination? I have heard different things from different people. I rarely do any turfing, and if I do it's usually just patching in so interested in current thinking. 

You need to be a member of Landscape Juice Network to add comments!

Join Landscape Juice Network

Votes: 0
Email me when people reply –

Replies

  • Evening John,

    The quick answer from me is to add an inch of good quality compost after levelling and rotavate that in.I am always a little wary when it comes to builders and new builds, as to whats under the soil and how much compaction has been going on from the likes of Manitous and other machinery.But maybe that isnt an issue with your site.

     

    Hope this helps

     

    Paul

    • Cheers Paul. That's exactly what we did and it seemed to work ok, not too much of the usual builders crap. Luckily the sun came out as we were raking some managed to get a reasonable tilth and just removed the bigger clay lumps

       

  • I certainly would not use concrete sand to dig in - as it's well full of concrete, same applies to compost would never use this as a medium for turf laying. Also an inch is never deep enough. 

    Try a turf base sand that the greenkeepers use on the golf courses and has the necessary nutrients and drainage value.

    Would also spray the soil prior to prepping and laying the turf as there will be a vast amount of weeds still in there that you have probably not caught. 

    • Hi Gary, 

      I meant to rotavare in the compost to the existing soil , not lay the turf on top of the compost. Do you mean to lay the turf directly on the sand, or mix it into the soil?Iv never done that myself. How would that fair out in dry periods as opposed to soil, would it need water more regularly ??

       

      paul

  • PRO

    This is always a difficult job. If only the builder would involve you from the start, edging and curbs could be put in to allow for anough soil to be be laid down to grow a lawn that will last.

  • PRO

    https://nhbc-standards.co.uk/10-external-works/10-2-drives-paths-an...

    10.2.9 Garden areas - NHBC Standards 2022
    • PRO

      It's against building regulations, for builders to leave top soil in bad condition, thay can be fined for it. It's been around for decades. I've worked on many a building site on only one occasion did the builders lay dawn shit soil.

      I've been using sharp/compost in heavy clay soil for two decades the sharp sand make a massive difference. 

      You can be a pureist about horticultural sand/grit blah blah, but sharp sand does the same job and is three times cheaper.

      • PRO

        I laid a small lawn which was on slag which I hollow tined manually and filled the holes with sharp sand , on top of this I laid a layer approx three inches of topsoil and mixed in some 777 ( growmore ) for slow nitrogen release .

        Compacted the top soil with a whacker making sure it was level and sowed grass seed which I mixed with top soil .

        The seed germinated and provided a permanent lawn .

        Turf would equally have taken successfully , I used grass seed because the area was in the shade and a shade tolerant mix was available which guaranteed success .

         Also forgot to mention a roller would be my preferred choice to compact the top soil instead of a whacker .

This reply was deleted.

Trade green waste centres

<!-- Google tag (gtag.js) --> <script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-WQ68WVXQ8K"></script> <script> window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-WQ68WVXQ8K'); </script>

LJN Sponsor

Advertising

PRO Supplier

Simon brings over 25 years of expertise in the sports turf industry, having held a variety of high-profile roles across the UK, Ireland, and Europe, including Agronomist for STRI, Technical Manager for Syngenta, and Technical Manager for…

Read more…
PRO Supplier

Edgmond Bowling Club has been awarded the title of Best Kept Green in Shropshire 2024, a competition sponsored by leading turf maintenance brands Dennis and SISIS.

The accolade marks a milestone for the club, which is also celebrating its…

Read more…