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Base Soil for New Lawn
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Posted by
francesca_sf CA (
My Page) on
Fri, Jul 8, 11 at 13:00
| I am putting in a new lawn from scratch and have been told conflicting information. Please help!
We will be rototilling 350 SF of San Francisco Bay Area clay, nitrogen-poor soil in full sun. We would like to add a nutrient-rich soil. We've been told to add 2" of compost and till with 6" of soil. Another nurseryman told us to add 3" of nursery mix. Then we would level, grade (it's pretty flat), plant sod (probably fescue/blue grass) and roll. Which soil would you recommend? Any other tips? We are rank novices and would not be offended to hear even the most basic info. Thank you!! |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Base Soil for New Lawn
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| I don't know what nursery mix is, and it might be fine, but I would go with more compost, or composted manure, or organic amendments (cottonseed meal, alfalfa meal, feather meal, maybe dried blood), or all of the above, and get it down as far as you can into the soil. The better you can make your soil, the less you'll have to baby your grass later on. |
RE: Base Soil for New Lawn
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| Excellent advice, Lisanti07028. Thank you! |
RE: Base Soil for New Lawn
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Essentially all soils are nitrogen poor.
The reason: the nitrogen washes through with every rainfall or supplemental irrigation. |
RE: Base Soil for New Lawn
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Soils with adequate levels of organic matter test low in Nitrogen because it is not readily available, but plants grow quite well with very low Nitrogen inputs. So while you have the chance, now, add lots of organic matter to that soil. You do not need to add anymore "soil" since all you would be adding is more of the mineral component that you already have lots of. What you want to get to is about 5 to 8 percent organic matter in your soil.
What that organic matter will do is seperate the clay particles so water, nutrients, and plant roots can move about easier and the water and nutrients normally locked onto clay soil particles will be more readily available to the plants. |
RE: Base Soil for New Lawn
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| Thanks jean001a and kimmsr. I'm looking into organic amendments that are common in our area. |
RE: Base Soil for New Lawn
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- Posted by pt03 2b Southern Manitob (My Page) on
Tue, Jul 12, 11 at 18:13
| I'd be careful with exactly what 'organic matter' you use. For example, using straight fresh sawdust might be a mistake. Try and use a good quality compost if you can, it will not cause you grief later on when it will be a lot more difficult to fix any problems. Lloyd Disclaimer, not a lawn guy by any stretch of the imagination. |
RE: Base Soil for New Lawn
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| September planting is easier because rain will do the watering though as long as you plan to water with sprinklers your sod will grow. Plan ahead for how many sprinklers & hoses you'll need to get edge to edge. A few years ago we observed someone in our area of western WA with dry summers put in a new sod lawn & they used an extension pole to raise up the sprinkler 3' to broadcast further as well as another one on wheels. It worked well & they have a huge lawn in full sun. It was a lot of work as we'd see one of them moving sprinklers every evening. |
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