Laying a new lawn?

I have just lifted our paving in our garden which was layed on about 4 inches of sand, does any one know if I can lay turf straight on to the sand or do I have to remove it first!!!, the problem is that the area is about 30 square meters, thats a lot of sand to remove and I would have to bring in more soil to replace it for the levels.

Thanks
Scott

 

Someone at work recommended rotovating it with the underlying soil and adding some grow bags to the mix, would this be OK.

I guess what I am concerned about is that the sand is not clean (i.e. not silver sand) it's looks like straight builders sand. I don't know if this is harmful to grass with it's Ph values etc? It doesn't have cement mixed in with it though.

 

Thanks very much for your advice, I feel confident now, can't wait for the weekend!, I might wait unil spring to actually lay the turf though, don't want to chance the frost! plenty of prep work to do in the mean time.

 

i don t think yo HAVE to buy top soil, try digging the sand in to the sub soil, and see if it makes a good textured soil..... test a small area first, it will be the cheapest option, you don t mention what type of soil you have in the garden,, sand is good for clay soils and will assist lawn drainage, the grass will adapt to the conditions it meets, tho slowly

 

if you are concerned about lack of nutrients in sand, you could add bonemeal be4 the turf is laid, and make sure the "base" is not dry when the turf is laid

 

Me thinks it's a bit late for lisa to worry about mad cow and all that! :D