Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design 1 Oct 27, 2012 3:27 pm After almost 2 years of being in the house, the time has come to turf the backyard. I wanted to pay someone to do the turf, but after building and other costs the money has dried up. So, I'm looking into doing it myself. My problem is that access is limited (I will be bucketing things in) and I can only raise things by a total of 50 mm (including turf). The ground has been cleared and roughly graded to give a 1 in 50 fall. So, what's the best I can do given the minimal height i have to work with? From Fu Manchu's Turf Laying Summary thread we have the following steps: 1. till the soil with a cultivator, hire a small one. 2. get certified organic soil (and in a clay soil some lawn sand too) delivered and dig it through with the cultivator to around 300mm at a minimum, deeper if possible. 3. mix in gypsum and add in powerfeed to which will act quicker than gypsum. 4. add spongolite and zeolite if you can. These help hold nutrients and do some other things too. 5. I suggest using "Olsens green bio" as well. 6. level with a nail rake to some extent and then hire a soil spreader (it's like a broom with bars on it instead) Then rake with a wide plastic leaf rake. 7. do a quick lap with the compactor (in sandy soils you will want to spend some time on this, best get a cold beer ready to have on hand ) rake over again to make sure it is all level and fairly firm. 8. lay out the borders first like painting a wall. 9. roll out the turf. 10. firm it up with the compactor and concentrate on high spots. 11. get plenty of seasol onto it and powerfeed regularly. Also get some molasses on it. 12. lots of water everyday unless good rain has occurred. 13. lots of powerfeed over the months to come. 14. every few months hit it up with some molasses and blood and bone. 15. regular use of wetting agents through the year. My question is, how much organic soil, gypsum, powerfeed, spongolite and zeolite would I need to add? Keep in mind that once the soil it tilled, it will fluff up a bit. Also, what thickness should I allow for the turf? My current thinking is that any turf underlay (soil etc) would be 25 mm and that the turf is another 25 mm. Is this about right. Finally, a question about cost - how much does Sir Walter Buffalo turf cost in Sydney? The area is 200 m2. Demolition August 2009, Construction Started September 2009, Completed December 2010 Re: Getting ready for and laying turf - height question 2Oct 27, 2012 7:58 pm In short - you are about right. We paid I THINK $7/m2 plus 1.50/m2 installation (much faster and easier if they do it and it's dirst cheap, those rolls are heavy!! And you can always do small fixes and adjustments if need be after they're left ) In long - I would go bare minimum and OH SORRY FU!!! but yes, forget about all that prep. If I knew then, this is what I'd do (I'm following your original points but with my modifs): 1. well, I'm stuck on the first point! (tilling) - I have to know how compacted is your soil and what soil type it is? If very compacted clay, you cannot till it anyway (or very hard) BUT you can easily scrape it with the sharp point of steel garden hoe. Yes, manual - but it's quick and quite sufficient. Then your imported soil will easier mix and grab into it when it's all kinda scraped with huge paws ... you know what I mean? ... 2. Spread gypsum onto clay BEFORE doing the scraping/sctaches so it kinda lightly mixes into clay. 2b) Next, IMO - no need for certif. organic soil. Just get std "turf underlay". It is nice and easy to spread. The only soil never ever to use is recycled soil. 3. nnnnnoooo, just that ^. Spread it nicely to the height you have / want. 4. add spongolite or zeolite if you can or whatever you want - yes IF you really want it. 5. "Olsens green bio" - yes if you want, no real need. 6. no no no ... just normal steel rake from BGS, but hold it lightly on your hands, don't let it "fall" into the soft soil and make you dips ... but even if you do, it won't matter, since laying the rolls would automatically cause some bumps because of teh nature of the beast. 7. NO compactor!!! BUT, spread some more organic fertilizer like DL turf starter. -- You are ready to roll already !!! --- 8. and 9. yes, lay the turf as per all turf sales sites ... I would hire the guys ... easy. 10. firm it up with the compactor and concentrate on high spots. - can do this but NO need. Your subsoil is compated and level enough I hope, the top soil is evenly spread - so no need to compact the turf. 11. water as you are laying it! Wear rubber boots so you can press high spots as you go about watering - this levels it automatically 12. that's it. the rest belongs to "maintenance" section That's IMO and IME (experience) ... and I can happily recommend the turf supplier My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Re: Getting ready for and laying turf - height question 3Oct 27, 2012 10:04 pm Thanks Lex. The $7/m2 plus $1.50/m2 install sounds good. What sort of turf was it? Who was the supplier. I'll have to read your input again to fully digest it. Do you think 25 mm of turf underlay will be enough? Do you know the height of turf? Demolition August 2009, Construction Started September 2009, Completed December 2010 Re: Getting ready for and laying turf - height question 4Oct 28, 2012 8:26 am Yep, it's http://www.qualturf.com.au/, and it was Sir Walter. What I meant to say with the numbered list revamp is to just keep it simple. I found that it's not really necessary to do all those things. I think the main point is to give it some good organic fertilizer (I had a thread on it recently), but nothing too much or hard to use like liquids. I also found that (contrary to popular belief), Sir W. would grow quite happily on very hard orange clay (and, I hope, we all know that orange clay is NOT that good for growing things in it) and with a skinny layer of imported soil on top; in fact, about 10-15mm skinny! Please don't take it that I'm suggesting you only put that much new soil, we had to do that in one area (which is also in full sun all day) because the silly overpriced landscaper didn't know a thing about levels (but that's another story). Put as much new soil as you have the height available. Height of turf rolls? I think it varies a little, but on average, plan for about 25-30-35mm. I think it will thicken a tiny bit later on - this can be important for certain "joining" areas. From memory, we left about 25-30 mm under the height of kerb and it's all nice and same level (unless overgrown). But, you're not telling how compacted is your soil and what soil type it is? What colour of clay (if it's clay)? I think it's very important info when it comes to preparation planning. My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Re: Getting ready for and laying turf - height question 5Oct 28, 2012 1:01 pm Thanks for the website Lex. It actually has the preparation details, which I'll add numbering to: 1) Spraying area to kill off weeds and existing grass. Use either roundup or something similar. Follow instructions according to the label. 2) Leave about 7-14 days to effectively kill vegetation. 3) Clean area by removing dead grass, sticks and stones. 4) Fertilise with gypsum, lime and organic fertiliser. Afterwards, you will need to either rotary hoe or mix into the soil. 5) Level and rake soil to get a nice and even surface. The soil should level approximately 15-20mm below path edges - this allows for turf to sit neatly in place. The 15-20 mm sounds a bit small the website also adds that for Sir Walter Buffalo, the mowing height is 30-50 mm. Would this not mean that the soil level should be at least this much below adjacent paths? My soil is a mixture of clay and soil and is half compacted. Basically it's what left over after building which was then graded by an earthmover to give me a slope of 1:50 away from the terrace and it's 165 mm below the terrace. This means that after 25 mm topsoil addition and 25 mm turf the step down would be 115 mm, which sounds good to me. There will be edging along the far side which I need to place at the right height. Demolition August 2009, Construction Started September 2009, Completed December 2010 Re: Getting ready for and laying turf - height question 6Oct 28, 2012 9:43 pm Casa2 The 15-20 mm sounds a bit small the website also adds that for Sir Walter Buffalo, the mowing height is 30-50 mm. Would this not mean that the soil level should be at least this much below adjacent paths? My soil is a mixture of clay and soil and is half compacted. Basically it's what left over after building which was then graded by an earthmover to give me a slope of 1:50 away from the terrace and it's 165 mm below the terrace. This means that after 25 mm topsoil addition and 25 mm turf the step down would be 115 mm, which sounds good to me. There will be edging along the far side which I need to place at the right height. My brain is half dead and I can't quite figure what are you saying ! Yes, 15-20 sounds a bit too little and I'd stick with 25-30mm below the concrete/kerb (actually, now I'm pretty sure I only left an inch because we too didn't have the height!!!). Our turf is just at the right height - you don't want the tips of the grass being at the kerb level, and you don't really want the roots of the turf to be at the kerb-top level either. So your ROLLS should be placed on soil that's been left some 25mm below the top of the kerb. And remember that the thickness of turf rolls can vary slightly between different harvests, even with the same supplier, so it's rarely 100% perfect anyway. But it looks like your soil is good? What's the other "soil" in the mix, apart from clay? Hard to figure - what do you mean half compacted? Do you mean just natural soil, or is it actually driven over and over by bobcat but not too much? What's the colour of your soil once it's ready for turf prep? Pics??? And all these numbers are killing me! Oh, you will notice that the instructions steps you copied say "either rotary hoe or mix into the [imported] soil"!!! Which goes along what I said: either hoe it (or even just scrape it manually if it's too hard clay, like I said) OR import new soil - OR both, as I suggested in your specific case because you are struggling with height - you can't import the recommended 50-100mm of soil, you can only have some 25mm, and I doubt you can easily hoe the land with a machine either - therefore a compromise (aka best of both worlds ). That's IMO ... (still!!) ... And if it is what I think it is, it will be great! But pics would help or more exact definitions ... and trust me, I've seen all the clay layers - from dark red to cement light grey/white! So I have a fairly good idea about what can grow on what soil and considering other important factors ... My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Re: Getting ready for and laying turf - height question 7Oct 29, 2012 7:27 pm Soil mix is hard to say. Maybe 50% clay, 50% topsoil with some shale fragments through it. By half compacted I mean it hasn't been run over by vehicles, but has been compressed by people walking on it. Too dark to take a photo now. The clay is a redy/orange. Demolition August 2009, Construction Started September 2009, Completed December 2010 Use a product like Equisol's Vitalise to clean the deck then coat with a penetrating timber oil. It will look 10 years younger and add value to your home. Visit for… 1 15795 Thanks. I called VBA today and they said it was a Consumer Affairs issue, the old handball. Seems like the government organisations don't want to do their job at the moment. 2 7556 I'm about to put down some Merbau. Is it necessary to oil underneath the boards before laying? 0 1935 |