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Getting It Right: Laying A New Lawn

By Paul Carpenter

Getting Started: Removing Your Existing Lawn

Turf itself comes delivered in rolls of pre-grown grass of evenly sized pieces – typically one metre or one yard in size. Because turf is a living product and requires water to survive it cannot be left for more than a day before it is laid. Preparation of the soil beforehand is therefore critical.

Firstly if you have an existing grass layer, it must be removed as much as possible. Your old lawn will have seeds, weeds and other contaminations that could affect the new turf. Removing it is a fairly simple operation. Using a normal garden spade, dig at a shallow angle to a depth of around 6 inches. You should be able to lever out the existing grass, roots, weeds and all. Manually, this is the hardest stage of the process as each spadeful can weigh a little and collectively you may be removing a tonne or two. Think ahead and either hire a skip to remove the waste, or get a lot of garden bags and store the soil and grass for composting or other uses around the garden.

Preparing the Soil

Your new turf will grow best when your soil is prepared in such a way as to encourage deep, rapid rooting. Turf needs sunlight, air, water and nutrients to grow. Grass plants obtain three of these factors from the soil; air, water and nutrients. The quality of the soil and its preparation will greatly affect the quality of the lawn.

If your existing soil is friable (easy to break up) then you can remove the stones, roots and other contaminants using a pair of gardening gloves and a rake. If your existing soil is of low quality, then you will need to lay down a bed of good quality topsoil which you can buy from your local garden centre or several online outlets. Bought topsoil is generally of a much higher standard than existing soil, because it will have been sifted and weeded before it reaches you. Simply fill the area of your new lawn with this soil, and rake it until it is as even as possible.

If you are using bought topsoil, it is best laid down a day or two before your turf is delivered.

Laying the Turf

Turf must be laid out within 24 hours of delivery. When it is rolled up it is effectively slowly dying as the leaves are not receiving any sunlight.

Start laying the turves along a straight edge, butting them closely end to end. On subsequent rows stagger the joints brickwork fashion. Planks should be placed on newly laid turves for walking along and working from. Using the head of a rake, lightly firm down the turves to ensure good contact between the turves and soil. Push turf into a joint ensuring that turves are not stretched by pulling them. Cracks can be filled with a light soil. If you need to cut your turf to shape, it can be done by simply using a suitable knife or cutting spade.

Watering

Newly laid turf must be watered immediately and for several days after laying until it is firmly established. The amount of water will depend upon weather conditions but the turf should be given a really good soaking to make sure that the water has soaked through into the soil below. Either first thing in the morning or in the evening are the ideal times to carry out watering. It is important not to over water. Don’t keep watering until the water is pooling on the surface, but let the water soak in. You only need enough water soak through the turf into the soil below.

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Copyright by Paul Carpenter
Paul is a keen amatuer gardener who likes to share his knowledge through writing articles and advice (he’s enormously proud of his turf laying skills). Away from his garden he plays guitar and cooks. Badly. http://www.rolawn.co.uk

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