My New Lawn

[crokett™]

The builder did a less than admirable job on my new lawn. It looked great until all the topsoil they brought in settled and compacted. I'm surprised the grass is doing as well as it is. Here the soil is all clay. This week I've aerated what I could though I'm not sure the tow-behind aerator did much, overseeded and re-seeded some bare spots. I'm going to add some scotts fertilizer. I'm wondering if I need lime and/or is it too late in the season to top dress it - should I wait until fall? I'm sure I can have all the leaves I want to rake up from my dad in the fall, I'm thinking of bringing home a few truck loads and using the mower to grind them up on the lawn. Is it too late to try and work some sand in to make the soil lighter and less prone to compacting?

Is something like this kit going to help for testing pH?

http://www.amazon.com/Luster-Leaf-Rapite...s=soil+test+kit

[JosephP]

Just send a soil sample to the lab. I just googled NC State soil testing. Sounds liked you have already paid for it...

Incorporating sand with clay is not a good idea...you want more organic material. If you are resolved to the fact you are starting over, spread a thick layer of compost and work it in as deep as you can...with a big tiller or disc. Smooth it then spread another inch or two of compost on top again. This article is about trees, but good soil is good soil...http://www.vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2016/02/021616-cnre-soilrehabilitation.html

If pH is too low, yes you want lime. If pH does not need raised you can add gypsum into the mix as you incorporate the compost. Top dressing with gypsum isn't going to dfo much good... (nor is topdressing only with compost).

Check out the compost before you get it. A lot of what they call compost around here is clay and leaves mixed together. You just want old leaves, 2 year old wood chips, if there is a truck crop farm around, you could see if they have composted material...

You could also try biochar if you wanted to break out the wallet...

[Admiral]

When I lived in Charlotte I had the same issue; that red clay is a killer to get into shape. I asked a guy who was the turf manager for a golf course what to do about the clay soil, he told me this: aerating the lawn in the spring and the fall; not the tow behind, but the self propelled kind that really plug the lawn, and go over it a minimum of two and if needed three times in a cross hatch pattern. Before plugging, spread a half inch of compost so when it got plugged the compost would go into the holes when it rained. After plugging, overseed in the fall with good quality seed in the right mix for your area. Don't rake up your grass clippings. All of this will eventually transform the soil.

I took his advice, and after three years of this, everything got much better and the lawn looked great, and then I only plugged in the fall, didn't compost but did overseed. Also, get on a fertilizer schedule, I used Scotts schedule that they have printed on the bags.

[JosephP]

If you aren't willing to tear up the lawn and start over, that way of incorporating the compost ius probably the next best.

When I was at VT in Forestry, we were doing several field labs in the Piedmont reion of VA with the red clay. They took us to an abandon "original" home site (think 1600s). There was 4 to 6 FEET of black top soil on top of the clay. We can't know for sure, but is that what the whole region looked like before it was cleared and plowed???

[crokett™]

I don't want to tear up and start over. I think I have access to good compost, depending on how much my dad uses year to year. I will get the kit and send it in for testing and I will plan on aerating again in the fall but topdressing first. I don't know what my land looked like, there are parts that were logged but trees are still there. There's some topsoil, but it's measured in inches, not feet.

[JosephP]

Most places the first check a developer cashes after they bought the land is for the top soil they scrape off and sell...

[Robert Adams]

JosephP said:

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Most places the first check a developer cashes after they bought the land is for the top soil they scrape off and sell...

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Yup and it's quite a big check as well. They even scrape off the clay and sell It here....

[JosephP]

Hooks....that may have worked for you, but 2 things:
1) the answer to compacted clay is not more compaction.
2) we don't know his soil pH. Mine, for example was 7.4 last I tested...I'll never need to lime it if I tried go lower it to the point I needed to.
2b). Leaves (or almost any compost) applied a few times at establishment are unlikely to significantly lower pH in acidic soil for the long term.

[Robert Adams]

thooks said:

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My first step was to run the sarifying teeth on the box blade over the entire area....breaking it up. Run a PTO powered tiller over it...whatever. I agree to loosen the existing conditions up.

I suspect his soil is acidic if it's previously been wooded with hardwoods and fallings though the years, wouldn't you agree?

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Same here. I also would assume it's acidic as well. We have lots of oak d trees and very sandy soil and our soil is acidic which is the soil type and acidity is not common here.
Years of oak leaves being left to sit and build up... We bag our leaves now because they don't decompose. They just form a thick layer of mulched leaves that smother anything that tries to grow. Once it was gone the grass etc started to grow.


Curious though what kind of grass grows well there in NC. We are looking around charlotte (north west and south into sc) and since it rains there and temps are cooler than here I'm hoping that we can have grass there and hopefully something other than crab grass (st augustine) as I hate the stuff.

[JosephP]

Driving tractor over an area as much as possible then rolling = compaction.

I haven't spent time in central NC (which could be a huge area wcen if I had) so i am not familiar with his soils. Parent material has a stronger influence on pH than vegetation for the las 50-100 years... I regularly see woodlands in NW Ohio with alkaline soil. No, I would absolutely not make the same assumptions you made with the last sentence. A pH test is the cost of postage for him... "Don't guess. Soil test."