turfing works

We have today uplifted & stacked for composting over 500 rolls of fusarium infested turf, that was laid in early January.

People will wonder why the turf was laid at all but there was a small gap in the weather after the major snow and before this current weather and when access was available on this building site to get the turf right to where it was needed it. All went well as the first pictures show.

However I monitored the state of the turf and it looked reasonable after laying with around 15-20 replaced at the turf companies expense, but then the turf started to nose dive for the worse as the photos show.

I visited site with the turf supplier and he pointed out that it is riddled with fusarium and getting worse. Great I thought!!!!! We have been paid in full by the excellent clients and I took the decision that the turf was only going to get far worse...

The options were to leave alone and hope for the best or uplift and re-lay. After carefull professional consideration I opted to uplift and re-lay as I did'nt want the client to start worrying about the state of their lawn after 3 weeks or so. I discussed the issues and client was understanding.

The turf supplier has also been very helpful and are covering the costs of the new turf & will credit us on future turf orders for the labour costs we incur..

My dilema now is do we wait till spring! before we re-turf when access could be compromised due to scaffolding and other builders issues or do we re-turf when this immediate freeze is over???

There is also limited water/pressure on site until the builders clear out in 18 months.. as the clients did'nt want an automatic system installled which would have taken some of the headaches away as the longer we leave it the more water the turf is going to need.

The clients have approached things in a slightly bungled manor & due to budget issues have opted for just the lawn, nevertheless they want a lawn thats well established this season as they don't want to see a mass of weeds again.

There is plans for future landscaping works so my heart tells me to get it sorted, my head says another thing...

So the big question is what would you guys opt for?? now or later, turf or seed ???