Landscape and Horticulture Association - Landscape Juice Network

Open association for the landscape and garden for industry

i maintain a small back lawn in london every fortnight. the client rushing of to abu-dubai put moss-killer/evergreen on the lawn out of a bag in boulders! (old bag) just to quickly empty bag/make use of contents. - susequently as it was not spread with a hand-held applicator 1/2 the lawn has NO grass whatsoever ,so its patchy ALL over. brown clay, hard and extremely dry as its south in the summer. ive tried amenity grass seed/compost mix on patches watered in - NOT worked. ive just put some SCOTTS lawn summer fertilizer on with hope.(its also been left uncut for 4-6 weeks next visit ) in the hope it spreads/knits out......
Question- could i just lay turf on the top of existing lawn if watered every night ,in middle of July? or does it need rotovating/raking and levelling first? advise please

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would need the soil breaking down for the soil under the turves to have something to knit to or it will just shrink and die even with watering, there would also probably be high concentrations of fertiliser in small patches which would probably burn the turf aswell
i would never recommend turfing on to unprepared ground

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Hi Robin, Unfortunately there aren't really any shortcuts here. I'd definitely go for new turf and basically as Colin says you do need to prepare the ground for this to be effective. I'd also seriously consider putting down a layer of new topsoil over the dug over ground to give the new turf the best possible chance. And as you say, don't forget to water! Cheers, Donny

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Putting new turf on old grass will only kill the new turf as the old grass will decompose and rot, then killing the new turf as well. Also as above the concentrateed areas of fert/moss killer will burn the new roots of the new turf.

Best thing would be to rotovate or dig over turf/soil, removing any stones/weeds etc, rake smooth, walk over it on heals to ensure bubbles out and then rake smooth again, then lay new turf... and WATER!

Stuart

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Kill the lawn off completely and then install Artificial Grass - Client will never know! :-)

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lol - yes i recommended that to someone where cars keep crashing into hedge (i have done another(4thqoute to repair fence!). we also nearly got ran 'over' last year strimming the grass verge/bank - I ADVISE HIGH VIS and SIGNAGE to ANYONE WORKING NEXT TO A ROAD /CORNER etc......................AsTro TuRf

BGS LTD said:
Kill the lawn off completely and then install Artificial Grass - Client will never know! :-)

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Robin - I gather the client done the damage to his / her own lawn? Without knowing what arrangement you have with them, I would suggest writing a quotation out for a lawn recovery and also complete re-turf and let them decide also this way he / she will see the damange their have caused and the expense to repair it. Hopefully in future they will leave the lawn treatments to you!

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think she(the boss) agrees to re-turfing for the tennant and wants it levelling also , so should be another little job - when would you advise to do this?? thanks for advice to all of you . rob

BGS LTD said:
Robin - I gather the client done the damage to his / her own lawn? Without knowing what arrangement you have with them, I would suggest writing a quotation out for a lawn recovery and also complete re-turf and let them decide also this way he / she will see the damange their have caused and the expense to repair it. Hopefully in future they will leave the lawn treatments to you!

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Hi
Not sure on size of the lawn or aspect i.e. North/South facing, Sunny/Shaded/Dry/Damp - you mention clay (subsoil?) so it could be that even if you lay a new lawn it's chances of looking good are limited...
Is the lawn big enough to justify having one? I appreciate that you've got the maintenance contract on it but maybe it's time to think about hard landscaping it?
Concur with other posts - you cannot lay new turf over old, you'll have to skim off the existing grass inc the roots then rotorvate, poss make up your levels with new topsoil, add some 7/7/7 fertiliser before turf goes down to give it a headstart.

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