Recommended Top Soil depth above clay for Lawn

Hi,

Firstly sorry about my English I am not English guy but I did my best to be self explaining.

I've just moved in to my newly rented house with backyard in very very bard condition. There were like 1.5m high weeds and ground is solid with no water circulation now so 50% of ground is covered by moss.

I decided to dig out everything, reactivate soil to good condition and sew a new lawn there.
During digging I noticed that my ground levels are as follows:

• aprox. 50-70mm of fine quality top soil (medium weight with easy to crush bigger soil parts and after digging very good water absorption)

• aprox. 20-40mm of hard clay (I couldn't dig into it)

• Below Clay there is dry, brown sand. (after I dig through clay in one place I noticed that).

I decided to dig just Top Soil and don't get through clay (except that one place where I did it).
I am not sure what should I do in this case to prepare my soil for new lawn.

Of course I will remove all weeds, dig through whole backyard, role and water ground and wait till it be stable, then level it.

But what in the meaning time ?

• Is my top soil enough and I should just mix some compost (e.g. Lawn sand) to it ?
• Or maybe should I get some top soil and then use Lawn Sand ?
• How deep should be Top Soil in this case ?

Best Regards
Michael

 

Hi,

Thank You. I am in Bradford, Bierley, West Yorkshire area.

I was afraid to get through clay to don't degenerate natural soil structure. Below clay I have dry brown/russet soil. I assume that it is dry because clay stops water.

Would you still recommend to dig through clay, crush it and mix with top soil ? Then I will have soil depth much greater than 200mm because I was able to dig 2-3 lengths of shovel and there was still ground below (possibly there was a meadow before they built houses there).

 

Thanks !

We plan to say there as long as we don't buy our own home which may take at least 4years (as we live in UK just 2 years now, we don't have any chances for Home Loan even with 30k+ household incomes). So it is worth effort And more than that experience is priceless in this case.

Ok. So Thank you, I will mark you answer in forum as useful Today I am going to dig some more and possibly tomorrow buy a pickaxe (if manual aerator won't move it) to mix this clay with ground below.

It is nothing more satisfied than see effects of hard manual work so I will do it

 

Nothing is more satisfying than seeing the results of your labour, Good Luck , nice to see someone prepared to put in the work and not look for an instant fix.

 

Thanks.

Unfortunatelly yesterday I noticed one important thing. Builders broke my backyard because of their laizyness.

I get through the clay in some places but 90% of area has a layer of rubble left by home builders. So It is not possible to get through it even if I wil have power tool. Excavator is not an option because there is no access to it from the road.

So... I will try to get some top soil and based on luck I can have only what I have without miracles. I am so angry now :/

 

Thanks for still being interested in my issue

Agree it is a shame :/
My backyard is not too big actually. It is like 3.5m wide and 15m long (after measurements), but I wish to sew area of 3m x 9m to leave 25cm nice space next to fence to plant some miniature trees etc. there (30 - 40cm height miniatures) and some Solar charged small lamps.

And I am not going to sew on the last 6m because ground there is going down aprox 20 - 25%, I assume that they build this house in a slope and they left it like that so I am going to just separate 9m area from those last 6m and sew lawn there

So at the end I have 27sq/m to get top soil into with 20% area with 15cm depth and rubble under and 80% of area with max 7cm depth and rubble under. I am not really sure how much soil do I need for it
Lawn calculator result saw me 58cubics (1 cubic is 1600kg) so I assume that I did something wrong there

Many Thanks

 

With all those calculations someone on here will tell you how much you need, we have a fair few bright sparks.

 

Great And I have one important question.

Is it against law in UK to get top soil from e.g. Plain on no one's ground ?
(I mean just a plain away from nearest buildings or wild forest (but not reservoir)).

I can't fins an answer to this question in the internet but it may me massive save to get some top soil from the nature instead of buying it form store and it don't have to be worse quality at all. Afterwards I can always mix it with turf or Lawn sand as a nutrition and get some fine soil.

As a alternative I know that I can find someone in my area that tries to get rid of his old top soil for free, but my question above is still actual I am just curious what UK law says about it.


Many Thanks

 

Somebody will know for sure, but, I have a feeling it would not be allowed, because of any disturbance to endangered native species, also you could import something you definitely don`t want, such as japanese knotwood.

 

Right And good to know. It was reasonable that it is against law, and more than that I don't know UK species so well to know where some dangerous species for my garden are present

Anyway I found someone in Bradford with aprox. 500kg of top soil to be taken free of charge. Question is: Will it enough ? Some calc. shown me that 1m3 for top soil weight aprox. 1600kg and cover 20m2 at depth of 5cm.

If I will be able to get trough this clay (which is quite easy) and get to rubble (I should have around 8-10cm then), level the ground, then cover missing centimeters with new top soil, aerate with manual aerator (should be easier as ground will be after re-digging), fill aerator holes with Lawn Sand and if necessary ad some turf on top.

Then wait till soil establish correctly and level it again, remove weeds and ... at last sew new lawn


Am I thinking correctly ? Sound like a massive work but,relax behind house in nice lawn is priceless