How to lay turf. Tips from a beginner.

Well, there are some sore muscles inside my body. My sides just below my shoulders have a bit of an ache because I have just laid about 30 sq metres of turf. Having never done this before, I had a few chats with the team down at The Smart Water Shop here at Gardenworld. They sell around 6 different varieties of turf, and have them all on display. I am going for Sir Walter Buffalo as that is the already existing grass that I will be joining up to. Sure you can also buy grass seed, and both methods of raising a lawn have there own special tricks, but here are a few that I have learned whilst laying turf.

Don't let the whole project drag out or your greatest enemy will emerge before your turf - those wretched weeds. Once entrenched in your patch, you will be forever plotting their demise. The sooner you lay the turf, the less area for them to multiply.

Preparation. I can't express the importance of this enough. Getting it right means the turf laying is the easy bit. The topsoil we had seemed a bit fine and I was worried about it draining well, so I added some granitic sand and forked this through the soil. This would add larger particles and allow more oxygen to help aid root growth.

The other key to good preparation is getting the levels right. If you are running up to a hard surface, you need to level the ground about 20mm below this surface so as the two end up level. This will help when it comes to mowing and will ensure that no dangerous blades hit the hard surface. It will also make doing the edges easier. At one stage I was too high, and as I had not checked this with an actual piece of turf, when I got the turf, it had been cut quite thickly. Maybe it is thicker when they harvest it in winter. I am not sure, but I had to skim some soil of the surface and this took me quite a while.

Using a string line, or even a long piece of timber can help level what the eye might not see. At some places, you may even need to make a slight incline or decline so as to meet at another point with a different level. For this I recommend not trying to be too exact, but to landcscape it with a nice curve of the ground. Make it look asthetically pleasing and just use your own eye. Be creative. So now there is a nice flat bit for badminton and a bit that flows down to the meet the existing lawn.

 
One of the tools that got me though was a leveller that I hired from the Smart Water Shop. It became indispensible as a rake and spade were not good enough to achieve the efficient movement of soil to get the area level.

Next was a roller. These are really light when you pick them up because when you get them home, you can fill them with water, which provids the weight needed for them to take effect. Very ingenious. What they do, is flatten the soil, not too much, but just enough so as that the maximum amount of turf comes into contact with the maximum amount of soil. This assists in maximum root penetration.

A nice watering of the prepared area and we are ready to go. Actually, it was only me. Yes, the boys heard what I was doing for the weekend and went the footy instead. Come on fellas, it wasn't that bad !

So I decided to lay longways until I got to the end where I had to join the lawn. It didn't seem to be joining nicely, so down that end I did a couple of rows laying the other way. This seemed to do the trick and made a better join. I also had a bucket of the topsoil and sand mixture, and used this to fill in any gaps between the pieces. You see even though you butt it up tight to the next piece, not all pieces are the same, and sometimes gaps this appear. This may look a bit amateurish now, but I am hoping I will end up with and even more level lawn.

 Once the jigsaw was complete - oh yea, you will need an old or cheap serrated bread knife to do nice clean cuts. Unfortunately I had ordered slightly less turf than I needed, so actually I did have to go back and get just a few more pieces.

The key now is to water - straight after laying and then every day for the next 2 weeks - especially if it is windy and dry. Glad I have the tanks so I don't have to worry about getting an exemption. Watering any new plant makes a big difference to its establishment.

Looking at it now, there is once section that has sunk just a enough to annoy me so I will take those bits off and raise the ground a little. It was where I had dug a hole and had not filled back in properly.

We won't have traffic on that lawn now for at least a month and who knows when it will get its first mow. Some weeds have started to come up, and when I asked the turf guys about this, they said that was normal as athe grass will out compete most weeds once it gets established. Until then, I am pulling these weeds out, and I must say they come out very easily.

So now we are ready for that summer of cricket, those badminton comps and just a bit of lolling around on the grass.