Clay soil

I've scraped my existing lawn (and with it, earth) to a depth of about 6 inches off the front garden, the soil has quite a lot of clay in it.

I've read that I will need to dig in lots of soil conditioner (composted organic matter) to open up the pores before laying top soil and then turf.

I don't know where to buy soil conditioner in large quantities, where would I usually get this?

The local quarry only has peat - is this any good instead?

Many thanks.

 

Hi Carl,

Peat would be good, might be worth shopping round for trailer loads of topsoil.

Or, if you are not in a hurry, pile the existing lawn & soil up and let it rot down & then use that as a base for the new turf.

 

Carl

I have planted several new lawns from seed .... all the soil has always been heavy clay

I have found that lawn is not too fussy as long as you feed it (from the top) from time to time/on a regular basis

buy some topsoil (you can buy lorry loads for cheap) .... then once your lawn has been established, feed it on a regular basis with general lawn fertilizer or similar

at one of the gardens I worked at (a new build area/village) ... there was a huge mound of topsoil that was left on an open field by the property developers

I loaded a few trailers of the soil, bought a 2mx2m wire mesh (with small holes) ... made a wooden frame and supported this with 2 wooden planks so that it stood at 45 degrees to the ground

took a spade and 'sifted' the soil by throwing spadefulls on the mesh .... the good soil went to the other side of the mesh and the stones/larger pieces were on the nearside

worked a dream and should have taken more soil as it was really good and for free

 

Great thank you. I will dig in peat, then add the top soil, then turf.

 

I got 60 x 50 litre sacks of mushroom compost off eBay for £156 delivered. They do different sized loads depending on how much you need. Its done wonders for my severely compacted starved clay soil.