turning clay to soil for lawn

Hi, the past couple of months i have been out in the garden breaking up our clay boarder and path, i have broke it up into smaller fist size pieces and then have added 1ton of sharp sand and 560L of compost using a garden folk to break it up even more going down about 6inchs, i have then brought a cheap rotovator and have been going over the soil to break it up even more. Currently im at the stage of marble size bits of clay but doesn't seem to be getting much smaller. Everytime i have rotovated i have gone through the soil taking out as much stones as possible, (also found old rope, 2 dead terror dogs, enough glass to make a few windows, sea shells, nails, screws, cable, house bricks) any ideas that would speed up the process? Using a sieve? Adding more sand/compost? Or just keep on rotovating? And also how find does it need to be. I will be levelling it then putting seed down. Thanks for your help

 

You've done the vast majority already and what you've done isn't only right, you've also done a nice job.

If you can get your hands on a riddle just work your way around the surface scooping the top inch off with a shovel and sieve out the larger clumps of clay. Once you've done that and you're happy you've got a nice, fine tilth on the surface have a final level with a rake then sow.

Once sown lightly rake the surface so about 70-80% of the seed disappears just below and you're good to go. Keep on top of the watering to prevent the seed bed drying out too much (light spraying not blasting with a hose which'll disturb the surface), then once established give the grass a deep water when needed (30mins of sprinkling which will penetrate the soil is much better than a couple of minutes here and there which will just evaporate when warm). You don't want to completely waterlog it though so keep an eye on it if sprinkling.

If you've got a space out of sight somewhere keep the clumps that you sieve off and leave them exposed outside to break down further. You can use these as part of a top dressing later in the year if required. You may have to aerate and overseed or aerate topdress and overseed in Autumn depending on whether you believe the hype (we may be in for a long hot summer which wouldn't be the best start for sown lawns ).

Make a note of the seed varieties that are included in the mix you use so that you can get the same if you ever do plan on overseeding.

All that said... ...it's quite dry already in many places in the UK and if you can get some quality turf locally that may be a safer bet now. If you go down that route follow all the instructions above just replace the seeding part with 'laying turf'

Nice job anyway.

Peace.

 

Thanks for your reply, what size holes in a riddle should i use? As i have seen lots of different sized ones. All ive done is read up on this forum and took on board what others have said, lots of usefull information here. Thanks everyone

 

Thats a pic of how it originally looked when i had just started

 

Just an average size will do like this one... http://www.amazon.co.uk/Metal-Garde..._sim_86_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=01KW8CS9HGGQ5TR1ARHP You'll find most manufacturers label medium in the 10mm range (give or take a couple of mil). In your case 8 or 12 would be fine.

 

Thanks for your help, got one on way

 

Ive not got round to using my riddle yet but thought i would see how good the soil was by planting some of the seed in a tray full of the soil i have been working on, very pleased with how fast it has grown. This is a photo i took 10 days after sowing the seeds