Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design 1 Jun 22, 2011 10:30 am We laid turf a couple weekends ago and I'm concerned that the soil isn't drying out for some reason. Just hoping someone could take a quick look at this video and let me know whether the soil looks ok? The turf itself looks pretty dry in places but the soil underneath is consistently moist verging on quite wet in places. I'm worried that's it's not drying out from our initial watering in and the subsequent doses of molasses, seasol and powerfeed. Besides watering those in last weekend it's had barely any water for the last 9 cold, windy and sunny days, and hasn't really shown any signs of drying out. It's had no water at all since watering in the goodies last Sunday. Right-click on the video to open it in a new tab http://i948.photobucket.com/albums/ad325/cjones83/th_IMG_0016.jpg Could this damage the turf to have it in such wet soil constantly? There's a fair bit of clay content and I'm worried about how the roots will go establishing in that. The soil is a mixture of the existing clay, organic compost, sand, zeolite, perlite, dolomite of lime and gypsum, all rotary hoe'd together. Can anybody help? Should I give it more water, or less? I would have thought it would be drying out by now but it's just not! On the other hand I feel that after 9 days of sunshine I should be giving it some water. If I'm just being pedantic and overly-concerned, feel free to point that out too Thanks very much in advance. Re: Newly laid turf and waterlogged soil - Video within 2Jun 23, 2011 11:22 pm You have a very long way to go yet! That stuff has as good as just gone down in the scheme of things, its healthy enough. As for the breaking down of the clay, well that is going to take time. The organic acids and the like will act far quicker than gypsum and dolomite of lime. (gypsum isn't ideal for all clays) However they still take time. Hold off on the water though, no need. The soil is damp to wet. Might have done with a heap more perlite or spongolite though. Also for the time of year, and to have it that green, you are doing exceptionally well. On a such a young lawn, you'd expect it going yellow normaly in winter. After 2 or 4 winters with organic care, that lawn will look pretty darn good though. Re: Newly laid turf and waterlogged soil - Video within 3Jul 05, 2011 4:35 pm Thanks for the advice Fu. It's still looking pretty good even after we've cut back drastically on the watering - seems that the soil is holding quite a bit of water which should at least be a good thing for our dry winters over here. The roots still aren't quite established but if I lift a corner up I can see them coming down. The bits that are the most yellow and dry are the ones that aren't contacting the ground properly anymore. It feels like we didn't pack it down hard enough and I'm guessing that's probably because we used a water roller and not a plate compactor. Is it too late to run a plate compactor over it a few weeks after laying? Re: Newly laid turf and waterlogged soil - Video within 4Jul 11, 2011 12:32 am It will be cool. Just lots of patience. Even if bits go yuck it doesn't mean all is lost. We can turn an entire brown lawn back to green easy as with the right things and time Your lawn wants warm soil. No harm done. The right things are in place. Good soil prep, good turf laying The turf is down when you needed it down. When the roots get growing later in the year and this time next year rolls round it won't get so soggy. The roots will be down in there drawing up water. Right now they are not, well they are but not how they will be when they grow deeper. The unit normally clips into a metal plate screwed to the wall, either plate is not flush, or unit not hooked in and could be hanging from the pipes partly, either might… 2 15791 I had new concrete laid, extended the alfresco and had the sidewalks concreted too. I noticed the concreter didn't put the expansion foam anywhere, there are expansion… 0 8117 Hi Building Expert, Thank you for the feedback, much appreciated, there is also a code of conduct for building surveyors which they need to follow as well. I am looking… 4 3672 |