Soil preparation and "conditioning"

peter1 · Jul 31, 2012 9:24 am

We have dug up some old turf and going to lay new turf in spring, it's only a small area of about 20 squares. The existing soil is pretty crap, mostly red clay type stuff underneath with a layer of dirt on top.

While we tried to clean up as much old turf as possible, surely there are still lots of roots and weeds in the soil, is there something we can do to safely get rid of all the roots without affecting the new turf down the track?

I read somewhere saying mixing organic soil with crappy ones can improve the overall condition of the soil, is this true? I'm keen to try out some products within the next few weeks before spring comes.

Thanks in advance for your advices.

Cheers!
Peter

TheGardenWhisperer · Jul 31, 2012 1:12 pm

Leave everything there as it is. All the old root systems will be great organic material that will be broken down by microbes and turned into nutrient for your new lawn.

Weeds, phhfft. Just dig them through. No they won't come back and destroy the world, they to will be broken down into nutrient for your new lawn.

Read the first page of the turf thread on what to do with the soil.

The top 30cm soil has more biomass (life) in it than above the ground and below. Sprays and pesticides, fungicides kill that living soil and turn it into something most gardeners are happy to deal with at an enormous hidden expense.

arcturus · Jul 31, 2012 1:42 pm

Just on this note Fu, I'd be interested in your opinion on whether or not to kill existing grass (we have kike that we'd like to replace with buffalo) with glyphosate first, or rotary hoe it all in now, add amendments, and lay the new turf on top?

TheGardenWhisperer · Jul 31, 2012 3:29 pm

For Kike, I'd spray it with Fusilade first. That would be the exception to the rule.

peter1 · Aug 01, 2012 11:22 pm

Fu Manchu

Leave everything there as it is. All the old root systems will be great organic material that will be broken down by microbes and turned into nutrient for your new lawn.

Thanks, sounds great, no hard work to remove them

But it's going to take longer than a few weeks for the old roots to turned into anything useful right? I have a feeling they will start growing when spring comes.

I will have a good read of your sticky thread.

Cheers!

TheGardenWhisperer · Aug 02, 2012 4:04 am

They won't.
What may would be weed seeds that will germinate after disturbing the soil. They will be there now, for years having lay domant.
nothing you can do to stop that.

On the taking ages to deliver nutrient, you'd be spot on. The great thing is that is the rate plants need nutrients. They get no benefit from huge heavy impacting nutrients being mixed into the soil before planting. They have no capacity to absorb them, nor the soil hold them.

Who's fertilising a forest?