Too late to rotavate ?

P

Pique318

Registered User
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Hi,

I moved into my house last september and over the winter the lawn was a soggy mess. The drainage seems to be inadequate. As a result, the lawn now is patchy and even with moss-killer and extra seeding, it's not getting better.

I'd like to re-do the lawn but I'm wondering if it's too late to do it now.

I would need to rotavate the lawn and add some peat/compost mix to the soil and re-seed as well as laying some drainage pipes for next winter.

Am I mad in thinking that I should do it now....am I too late to do it this year ?

If I do go ahead with it, what kinds of grass seed should I use for an urban lawn with quite a bit of shade?
How long would it take to become useable and should I stay off it completely while it's growing ?

Thanks,
PK.
 
Hi PK, we planted a lawn at about this time last year. And then there was no rain for 6 weeks! It was a disaster - even with watering most nights, as it was a big area, the results were quite patchy. If you have a smaller area and you're happy to water it through a dry spell, then it should grow well.

We seeded another area this year about three weeks ago, and in the sunshine and showers it has shot up.
 

If it's a new house/estate the drainage will probably be off as the practice of spreading a thin layer of topsoil over hard compacted subsoil (rolled over by machines until it's a hard pan) is common. The underlayer may also contain all sorts of rubble too but it's the compaction that is the problem.

Rotovating it may not do the job as most rotovators only till 8-10" of the topsoil and the trouble is underneath.

I suggest getting a JCB to your lawn site for a day. Ask the operator to put the topsoil to one side, dig and loosen the subsoil, maybe incorporating some peat, sand, gravel (which you've place conveniently near to hand or bucket!) and replace the topsoil working from the furthest corner to the entrance as he leaves so as not to compact the new work too much.

A more thorough job, if you find heavy waterlogging, would have him dig trenches in the subsoil, sloping gently to a soakaway in the lowest corner. The trenches are lined with land drainage pipes (with holes for water to be absorbed along their length) and covered with gravel. The topsoil is then replaced.

You don't say if your house is stand alone or part of a group/estate. The reason I ask is that, if the latter, your neighbours may well have similar problems and you could all benefit from the economies of scale by hiring the operator to do more than one garden, buying materials in bulk etc.

You could even gang up on the builder and negotiate something!

Best of luck with it.
 
My lawn was sown last June and it's patchy at best. Pretty sure the rubble underneath is well compacted and it's a sloping site. When I put the garden hose on it the water just runs across the surface to the paths around the house. Would I need to dig it up and loosen the rubble also?
 
Before you do a lot of work, you could try spiking it with a garden fork (to get some drainage holes in it).

Have you put any lawn feed down? The grass may be able to recover the soil structure once it grows well.

Other advice I've heard, but not tried, is to manure the lawn in the winter as, aside from the feed, this encourages worms to work the soil and loosen it/improve the drainage that way.
 
Pitchfork may help drainage but it won't solve your compaction problems. When soil is compacted it leads to anaerobic conditions (no oxygen). Roots don't do well with no oxygen so they die. You need to loosen up the soil so that it is more porous so oxygen can reach the roots.

This time of year is not great for digging because the soil will break up which will leave less pores. However, if you mix the soil as the earlier poster said that will help.
 
Thanks for the replies.

It's in a housing estate but the problem is that a JCB can't access the back garden.

I used a Weed & Feed product about a montha ago and overseeded but like I said, nothing is happening.

Last winter, the garden was a soggy mess and I'm going to have to put down drainage pipes to sort out that problem. I'm not sure about a soakaway though.
It's the back garden and it slopes up away from the house, so the lowest point is at the corner of the footpath and foundation wall for wooden fence. Do I really want to dig a soakaway right beside the house foundations ? I was thinking of just breaking into the existing drains for the rainwater from the gutters....so long as I don't screw it up I assume it would be ok ?

Also, would 100mm drainage pipes be sufficient for a 100M2 garden ? I don't really want to spend a month digging drains 4' deep all over the place but how deep minimum can I go?

As I'm at that anyway, I may as well give the place a good going over with a rotavator and even a crowbar to loosen up the subsoil as much as possible before raking and re-seeding. What kind of seed is recommended for shady-ish lawns that can put up with a 'bit' of abuse ?

Would it be worth buying turf? Does anyone know the price/m2 for turf ?

thanks for all the help !!!
 
Don't do it by hand - it's great starting but when you realise how incredibly soil bulks up when dug and how long it'll take you could regret it. What about a mini-digger? (With or without operator). Or ask a few bog-standard landscape contractors for advice?

The soakaway doesn't have to be at the very lowest point as trenches can run to it from the area at the house too. It could be a metre or two away - the trenches are dug, filled and covered so you can sculpt the topsoil level on top.

Or - here's a thought - capitalise on it and have a nice lush bog-garden with perhaps a few stepping stones through it up to the rest of the garden. You'll get to see it from both inside the house and and in any seating area further up! Fill your garden with borders and paths and just have a small raised lawn area where you can control the drainage. No need to impose what mightn't work without lots of effort - just take advantage of what's already there...
 
I suspect I have a case of compacted rubble/subsoil/general builder rubbish.

I am considering hiring a mini-digger to put the topsoil to one side, loosen up the structure underneath and remove any rubble. Then put top soil back in place together with some new topsoil and possibly some lawn sand. A couple questions:

1) What depth do you think I should go in loosening up the structure underneath, should it be obvious? I guess this is dependent on general drainange in the area? What signs should I look for to indicate that I have loosened up sub structure adequately?
2) I think the top few inches of soil is probably okay-ish, although a bit heavy. would you recommend adding anything else other than new topsoil and lawn sand?
3) Also, where can I buy lawn sand?
 
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