New build lawn soil like clay.

How big is the lawn? How physically fit are you? How much spare time do you have?

Depending on the answers to those three questions, I think I'd be digging the whole lot over, removing as many stones as I could, and improving the soil with compost, rotted manure, or spent mushroom compost. I used the latter on mine after a recommendation on here, and am very pleased with the results. Its nice and cheap too compared to other soil conditioners.

Then having done all that, I'd then set about putting a new lawn on top of it. I'd do it from seed because I don't like spending money, but I guess turf gives much faster results.

 

Dietspam, you could written this thread on my behalf. I have exactly the same problems with my back lawn. Only difference is mines is nearly 5 years old.
It`s around 100 sq m so toooo much for me to dig out.

With regards to the builders responsibilities, I`d be really curious to see if we had any lawyers in our midst who could advise us on our rights.

 

I'm busy buying plants for a home in a new build area ... guy moved into the home in December

the builders never laid turf, so he got a friend to sort it .... a decking area was built, and the remaining garden is 7m long and 5 meters wide

from what I was told, the ground was full of rubble, so they bought 6 tonnes of topsoil to sort the 35 sq meter garden before laying the turf ....

I think I'm going to have a hard time digging the holes for the shrubs and palms

 

Hi all,

This post completely sums up my current position. I moved into a new build on 20th June and could see both my front and rear gardens were sown. After a week of occasional watering I started to notice the grass/weeds combo was growing pretty sporadically. Upon closer inspection I noticed pretty large rocks and stones not to mention cement, plastic and other builder paraphernalia.
From online searches I've identified that this is a pretty common thing with new build gardens and one that I couldnt really be bothered tackling the builders to rectify.
Therefore if I want a garden to be proud of I need to put in some hard labour. Problem is I am beyond an apprentice. I think what I need to do is the following:
a) dig up both gardens
b) add sharp sand to aid with drainage
c) add 12" of new top soil
d) re-seed

If anyone could be so kind as to opine whether I'm on the right path and actual tips as to how to do the above I'd be much appreciative. As I say my fingers are on the other side of the rainbow from green!

Many thanks in advance!
Jonny

 

They should be shot IMHO. There must be some Rules & Regs that they are falling foul of doing this - wholesale across the whole country?

I would suggest these steps (perhaps put the kettle on and make a cuppa before proceeding?!!):

Dig garden and remove all rubble. Keep it in a pile

You probably have sub-soil and top-soil mixed, or have sub-soil covered with (a thin layer, maybe) of topsoil - i.e. the builders, quite reasonably, stripped off all the topsoil before building, and then put it/imported some back afterwards.

I would double-dig the site - i.e. dig two spits [2 x spade's depth] deep, but without mixing the Top and Sub soil layers. Hopefully the second spade's depth will be deep enough to find the majority of the junk. Doing this will give you the opportunity to incorporate some organic matter into the lower spit, which will make a huge difference to future performance of the garden and get worms working the soil, again, much more quickly. If you can get farmyard manure that's fine (even fresh will do, although normal recommendation would be to compost it for 6 months first), failing that a bulk load of Mushroom compost, Spent hops or council composted waste - depending on what you can get locally - the cost will be 99% haulage, and 1% material! so "local" is most probably the key.

If the top-soil layer is too thin then import some, more especially where you want any flower beds. You might find people locally (not in a new build!) who are building, say, a conservatory and having to pay to have their top soil carted away, so depending on transport / manpower etc. that might be a Freebie option.

If your soil is heavy (clay) put in land drains. It is not hard, but it will revolutionise the way that the garden works. You need a trench (I would suggest 2 spits deep, so that will fit in with the double digging process), you lay perforated drainage pipe in the bottom of the trench (it comes on a roll) and cover it with gravel.

http://www.pavingexpert.com/drain03.htm

the drains have to flow to somewhere If you are on a slope and can route them to flow away at the lowest point, or into a storm drain, then the Job's a Good'Un but as that is unlikely next best option is to create a soak-away. Dig a deep hole (careful it doesn't cave in on you during excavation), at the lowest point of the site (and route the drains into it), fill it with all the rubble you have collected, the large the pieces the better. Put a "duct" up the middle of the pit large enough to house a submersible pump (including whatever swing-arm float switch it has, or get a skinny pump that will fit in a 9" or 12" pipe and place concrete drainage pipes vertically - dry butt-jointed). I've known people drill holes in the bottom of a wheelie bin and bury that in the soakaway - lift lid and pump out! I would route drainage pipes down the middle-ish of flower beds, and perhaps one down the middle of the lawn, but flower beds will be the most important part to drain. If you have had a torential thunderstorm, or have one soon!, then seeing where the water collects (running off terrace, for example) will give you an idea of any additional places where extra darainage could help. When you backfill the trench (with soil, above the gravel) you can leave some openings to the surface (e.g. shuttered with some old timber etc) and then fill then, vertically, with gravel to the surface to make a poor-man's-drain. We have some of those on the edge of our drive/lawn to the land drain underneath and when a downpour floods the whole drive it is gone within 5 or 10 minutes.

You won't have to pump out the soak away often, 'coz the idea is that it Soaks Away, Natch!, but in my experience in very wet seasons it won't soak away fast enough, and the option of being able to pump it out can be a saviour.

I have heavy soil. Most of my garden has no land drains, but some areas do and the comparison of the performance of the plants is like night & day - I wish I had drained the whole garden before planting, and any new areas we create now the first thing we do is to put drains in.

Plan B would be to create Raised Beds where you want borders. They have been doing this on Beechgrove (BBC Scotland gardening program, repeated on BBC2 on Sunday morning) as part of a newbies garden creation project on a new build.



[YouTube Link]

I think the result looks pretty good! but I still think you need the rubble sorting out, otherwise the lawn is likely to be a quagmire in winter.

If you have light, sandy, soil then you will not need anything like as much work on soil preparation or drainage, but incorporating as much organic matter as you can will stop everything drying to a crisp in Summer.

 

Thanks for the responses!
Will take some pics tonight and share.