I have clay soil which hard as a brick. What are the steps I should do as I add new top soil to grow grass?

Question

Should I try to till up the clay soil before I add the new soil and what should I add to help loosen the clay after so that the roots will always stay strong. Is there anything else I should add into the new soil?

Answer 1

If you have existing grass, have the lawn aerated, or rent a machine and do it yourself. The aerator removes plugs of dirt and scatters them on the surface where they eventually break down. Once that's done, spread some compost or peat moss over the area and rake it into the lawn. Over-seed with grass seed that's appropriate for your area of the country. If you are not sure, contact a local garden center or your county extension agent for advice.

If you are starting from scratch, be careful when purchasing topsoil. In our area, some of the so-called topsoil that's sold isn't much better than the clay you have. You might be better off spreading a good 2-4 inch layer of peat moss or compost. Do not till it in too deeply, 3-4 inches at the most. Also add some gypsum which helps break up the soil. Follow the directions on the bag for application rates. Seed the lawn with the same seed described above, one that's appropriate for your area. Mulch with straw and water well.

For a longer term approach, you could just grade the area and sow the grass seed and mulch it. Then in the future, you can do the aeration thing and add organic material as you get the time and resources. A project such as this depends on how much time and money you want to through at it.

This time of year is the best for doing what you want to do, however. Next spring you can apply a pre-emergent weed killer and fertilizer and in no time you will have a great looking lawn. There is an organic weed and feed available which is a good choice if you have children. Look at our blog entry of May 25th for more information on this product.

Visit our website for more gardening ideas at-
http://www.gardening-at-the-crossroads.com/

Good Luck and Happy Gardening from Cathy and Neal!

Answer 2

Tilling tyhe soil would be good way to add some organic material to the soil. Compost, peat moss, stuff like that.

FIRST, soak the soil well, to a good depth. Otherwize you are only making smaller hard bricklets of that clay. Clay is made of very tiny particles that chemically bind to eachother, or to other chemicals (ferilizer). You need to get the clay wet enough to work, but not soggy.

Add some gypsum (CaSO4) to chemically open the soil. That's what the Calcium does.

And here I should nmention getting your soil tested to see how fertile it is and the pH. What it is missing depends on what amendments you will need to add.
Simply adding compost will generally fix most problems in fertility.

It would be good to mix in compost, and gypsum, and whateverelse, in to the soil down about 8-12". Then the roots will grow deep and you can water less often and still have nice green grass.
But remember if you have clay soil it absorbs water very slowly, so you need to put the water on over a long period to get it to soak in deep enough.

Then when you rake the seed in you can spread a thin layer of fine mulch over it and keep it moist. After a while a nice lawn.

Then you can get tired of the lawn and will already have good soil for perennials and shrubs.

Answer 3

I know this is old. But we just planted a new yard. Clay soil....hard as a brick. I just threw some tall fescue seeds down and blew some straw on top. I didn't use topsoil, I didn't rake in the seeds, and I didn't water. I had over an acre to plant. So my hopes were small. But actually where the straw didn't blow away, it's sprouting beautifully. Where the straw did blow away, I have big patches of hard-pan. But I'll hit those areas again in a few weeks. I'm going to rake up some of the straw, reseed the bare areas and reuse the straw and hope those spots fill in. I was really surprised how well the straw helped retain moisture and help seeds to sprout without doing any additional work besides throwing seeds down.

Answer 4

Mow the current weed patch as low as possible or spray yard with roundup and kill the entire thing. Till the clay soil. Add some granulated lime, peat moss , topsoil and sand and till this in to a depth of at least 4 inches. Then seed heavily, use clean straw as a cover and water thouroughly daily. Keep moist for at least a week then water every other day the grass should be up through the straw by then.

Answer 5

We had this problem when we bought a new house in Denver. We basically made top soil buy tilling in sand and composted cow manure. We had a 1/4 acre lot. We added about 48 yards of cow manure and a similar amount of sand.

Adding gypsum is also a very good idea. It helps to break down the clay. I don't remember the amount we used but you really can't put in too much.

It was a big effort, but it worked great.

Answer 6

I feel your pain. We have clay soil and we put down sod grass. Our grass was yellow because the clay would not soak up any water. Our lawn company "aeriated" the yard.
It's some machine they used (you can rent one too) that punched holes in the ground. You will have little clods of dirt in your grass but they will go away. You would not believe how well it worked!! Our grass turned the most beautiful green in about 3 weeks, because the holes in the ground started soaking up water. I think I would definitely have it aeriated before I put anymore soil down. Good luck because clay soil is a pain in the butt!

Answer 7

If you are not having a landscaper do the work then I would augment the soil. Mix peat moss, sand and topsoil in equal parts into your existing soil with a tiller. This would be a good time to add minerals or fertilizer if needed. Compost can be used in addition to or in place of peat moss. The goal is to make the soil accept water and not to compact. It can be back breaking work if doing it by hand. Rent, borrow or contract the heavy equipment to do the work. Since you have the yard torn up anyway, if you can afford it, now is the perfect time to install a sprinkler system. Good Luck.

Answer 8

Laying Turf On Clay

Answer 9

A good DIY way is to rotary hoe the area for your lawn add 1kg of gypsum per sq metre and top if with at least 4inches of good topsoil from your local lanscape supplier and then sow seed on top of that, however i reccomend buying rolls of turf from a turf farm as they have the staff who can tell you the best turf for your situation. Plus seed you buy that are mixed usually are full of perrenial rye grass or a mix of really crappy seeds! Always add a good spread of granual organic fertilizer before laying turf you could use brands like ECO 88 or DYNAMIC LIFTER or any other brands your area might stock!

Answer 10

my advice to you would be to plant grass seed, throw some hay over it and water about every other day. our yard has hard clay also and it took us 2 summers to get grass(we live in VA) but now it looks pretty good. unless you want to place sod it will take time. then you will hate it because you will have to cut it all the time, LOL. hope this helps.