Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design 1 Oct 07, 2010 12:44 am Hi all! Here's my situation: sir Walter lawn put down on front yard in April/May. About 40sqm. Soil prep was done following Fu's advice (but in hindsight, probably didn't use enough zeo, sponge and organic soil). So far lawn seems ok - but there are small patches of nice green fat leafed blades, with lots of areas of yellowish/green and thin (almost 'shrivel' looking) blades. Didn't really water it much over winter, but I did if the week didn't see any rain. Have given it regular seasol, molasses, powerfeed. Now that it's warming up a bit I am making sure it's getting water once a week. Now because of the 'yellow' areas, I suspected it was due to lack of water. Purchased a little moisture measuring device (stick spike in ground n it tells you 'dry', 'moist', 'wet'), and a lot areas are reading 'dry'. Did a test: watered the lawn with a good soaking. 30mins later stuck the spike in random areas and most areas are 'moist' in the top 2cm or 3cm, but DRY below! Also, a lot of the areas it was slightly tough to push the spike down. Result: Am thinking my ground could be slightly 'compact' (maybe over did it with the compactor?) and the water is hanging on the surface where it is evaporating off. Of course I'm only guessing here. But if I am right, how do I fix this? Any advice here would be much appreciated! Cheers. Re: Keeping Lawn Water Happy - advice please 2Oct 07, 2010 11:15 am What was your soil type like ? I have experienced this sort of thing with yellow or red sands here in Gero where they have been used for fill. When they dry out they set like concrete. Fine when wet but like I say - concrete when dry. Have a bit of a dig under the dry patches and see what is going on - is it sand and simply non wetting or has the dirt gone hard ? Also, what type of soil do you have ? Re: Keeping Lawn Water Happy - advice please 3Oct 07, 2010 2:13 pm Hi Keen! Thanks for your post. My soil was pretty much sandy sand. Being the front yard, the builder did level everything out with the left-over yellow sand. But in saying this, the yellow sand would have been just a thin layer on top. Before putting the lawn down i did truck in organic soil, but only enough for about a 30mm-50mm layer. (I know I should have done a 100mm layer.. ). Don't worry I didn't leave it as a layer! I chucked on zeo+sponge+olsens+sand remedy - but again (from reading recent posts here), I probably only put in half the amount i should have. Doh! Anyway, this was all tilled through - tiller could only do a depth of about max 200mm. I then did a few laps with a compactor, put down turf, n then few more laps. Yah I may have to dig down to have a look, but at this point I think the water is not draining through. It confuses me though, because there isn't any visible pooling of the water on top (well not after a few mins) and I am not walking through puddles - so the water must be going somewhere. Question: If water drains very quickly through the soil, will the soil be moist? Or will it be dry because the water has just gone through so quickly? Hmmmm.... Re: Keeping Lawn Water Happy - advice please 4Oct 07, 2010 4:11 pm If the water goes through the soil should still retain moisture as it has the lawn as a ground cover. The sand remedy & organic matter & zeolite & spongolite were added to assist the moisture to remain in the soil profile for longer. As you have no pooling it seems your soil is not non-wetting but check the soil moisture. Best way to check mosture is to have a look, part the grass and have a dig with your finger. Seems water has only penetrated 2-3cms and the rest is dry. Give it a good soaking and make sure it gets wet right down - once the soil has wetted it will be much easier to keep moist, dont let it dry out. If all the soil types were mixed up at the start then you should have no layering. You may have over compacted the soil though espacially where you had yellow sand, that mix would pack down hard. In the yellow spots have a dig to see if the turf roots have started to develop, if not then maybe too much compaction for them to penetrate, - would have been good to scarify the surface before laying the turf. If this is the case then what I would try would be to get a crowbar or strong fork and try to bust up the compaction in the hard spots, or even core them as well. Then topdress with fine compost to cover over roots, only 1cm or so, worked in. Do this regularly (weekly) and dont allow these areas to dry out (hand water). Keep up seasol, powerfeed and molasses. How could that not work ? Fu will give you a real answer soon I'm geussing ! Re: Keeping Lawn Water Happy - advice please 5Oct 07, 2010 4:30 pm Thanks keen for such a detailed post. Yah, you are right, I'm gonna have to do more investigation under the turf. My little moisture meter thing is just a cheapie from the big green shed so I'm hoping its not faulty n misleading me! I'll have a dig. Thanks for the tip about not letting the soil underneath dry out. This might be my problem and so this weekend I'm going to truely make sure the water goes through. If compaction is my problem, I was thinking of pitch forking the whole place (basically stab holes everywhere), but that is very hard work! Maybe I'll do a small section every day. Thanks again keen. I know that Fu gets very busy at times, so it's good to have someone else here to bounce ideas/issues off. Much appreciated. Re: Keeping Lawn Water Happy - advice please 7Oct 07, 2010 7:14 pm Oh cool! I think I've seen those feet strap-ons before , but not the other tool. But looking at those pics, I was hoping to punch through as deep as I can. Feet spikes = ~50mm, Push spike thingy = ~80mm, Pitch-fork = ~200mm Then again, maybe I don't need to go so deep? Hmmm.... But thanks kath&adrian! Appreciate that Chippy. I won’t do sand under pavers and will connect all up under pavers, however I was going to do: 1) Roadbase compacted with manual hand tamper 2)… 10 14377 the leaves that are now underground go yellow, the tips that poke through photosynthesise and have chlorophyll, same reason they grow rhubarb in the dark. 5 2912 Versaloc is a mortarless besser block system that still needs a properly engineered footing. If you just do a 400x200 footing it will fail in time. At 17m long you need it… 1 3431 |