Soil over grass, what to do?

Ush1

So I had a lawn but had work done on the garden and to level it out top soil was smoothed over the whole lot. I'm hoping that the old grass would grow up through but it's been I think 3 weeks and it's not looking good. I've started watering it and can see tiny patches of grass coming through cracks in the soil but would the best be to break up the soil again, level with a rake and water and stay off of it? I think it may be too compacted from people walking on it while work was being done.

Jim_Hodge

That looks like a compacted disaster zone. You need to loosen that up and reseed.

The Continental Op

Sorry bad news OP only weed grassed would ever ever be strong enough to grow through. Lightly fork it rake it out and seed.

Topgear on Dave

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119338198#Comment_119338198

+1 That ground needs some love.

Lumen

I'd be inclined to leave it until the hot weather has passed.

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119342269#Comment_119342269

It'll not be dug and raked over before this hot spell passes next Wednesday

Ush1

I might as well paint the walls before I do that. Was hoping wouldn't need to seed but not a big issue. Would a manual Rotavator be better than a fork?

standardg60

If the soil is good you'd probably get away with just raking it over to break up the surface, needs to rain on it first though!

ErinGoBrath

What type of soil is it? The way it hardened could suggest it's got a lot of clay in it

10-10-20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119343448#Comment_119343448

I was going say similar. Spray off the last bit of grass there and I'd grab a bag of lawn sand (specifically) and work it in as I loosened up the top 6cm. Remove all and stones and FOD larger than about 2cm. Then re-seed with a good quality GP mix (or tougher mix, if needed).

The Continental Op

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119353187#Comment_119353187

Not really Lawn Sand has a specific job https://spaldingbulb.co.uk/lawn-sand/ which isn't ameliorating clay. Probably do no harm but no need to pay the premium price.

10-10-20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119353274#Comment_119353274

Ok, I thought lawn sand was lime-free and also was rounded to allow better workability (but it seems not)? That's why soft or builder's sand can't be used as it contains lime? What sand would you recommend to improve the drainage and structure of that particular lawn?

The Continental Op

Where I live I find plastering sand perfectly adequate. I've just used a one tonne bag of it this year on a very wet clay area of the garden. The type of sand I'm on about is the "grey" looking gritty sand that is sold for plastering in most of the country. I know that in the UK they use a very different type of sand for plastering so its hard to find out exactly what ours contains. I'm not suggesting its ideal just that it works for me.

CreadanLady

The grass will eventually grow up through it, rest assured.

Did you ever see a patch of ground left to be that just stayed bare topsoil forever? Obviously, the answer is no. It'll be fine.

The Continental Op

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119353804#Comment_119353804

Thats called tumble down where grass seeds get blown in and grow. Starts off primarily with annual meadow grass. The only grass that will reliably come up from below is Scutch which you don't really want.

BorneTobyWilde

It's a good base, but needs to be hard raked , loosen it, then rake in a few bags of compost, seed it water it, sprinkle some more compost on top,

looksee

While I have never had to deal with it, I was pretty sure I had read that using sand on clay soil was a bad idea. A bit of googling produced the following article, but many other articles say much the same thing.

While it’s commonly suggested to add sand to clay soil, this approach is counterproductive. The idea is that the sand creates that separation. For this to succeed, you’d need a ratio of 1:1 sand-to-clay. This is far too much sand to support healthy soil, and anything less than that ratio will usually result in soil with a concrete-like consistency that creates a bigger problem than what you’ll have with clay alone.

https://www.douglasforestandgarden.ie/preparing-clay-soil-gardening/

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119353804#Comment_119353804

Decent grass will never come through that.

GreeBo

For future reference, when levelling out an area you should cut the grass short first (you want it to be standing up and spikey) then start applying sand to level out the area. The sand should be done in layers and brush/rake each layer in so that the grass is standing up again, its essential that the grass is not lying down as it will die.

If you need to make significant level changes you can either follow thsi process multiple times, or just do it all in 1 go and reseed.

Sand is used for levelling as unlike soil/compost, it wont sink or decay away. Depending on the depth you can make the final layer out of a soil/sand mix.