I have just moved into a new house with a large rear garden 30m x 30m.

It has been rotavated over by builders, but it is very soft and loose,
with large lumps of clay.

Apart from the obvious brick ends that will have to remove, and giving
it a good rotavating over to make a fine bed.

Whats the best way of compacting the soil ready for turfing ??

Its too big to walk on, but its very sticky to use a roller.

On May 23, 10:38*pm, bill west wrote:
I have just moved into a new house with a large rear garden 30m x 30m.

It has been rotavated over by builders, but it is very soft and loose,
with large lumps of clay.

Apart from the obvious brick ends that will have to remove, and giving
it a good rotavating over to make a fine bed.

Whats the best way of compacting the soil ready for turfing ??

Its too *big to walk on, but its very sticky to use a roller.

I disagree that it's to large for "walk on". You could scatter a bag
of gypsum over it to affect the stickines of the clay and rotavate
that in; Then as you're going over the area with, perhaps, a shovel
to level it off a bit, you'll find you wont be able to avoid walking
on it to do so.
What I'm unsure of is what you mean by "laying" a large lawn. Laying
turf, or sowing?.
Either way
After that first general evening-off you can start with the racking-
off to a rough standard. You'll have to walk on it to do so.

Then you could pretend you're doing an open garden. Loads of people
will turn up, trample around and have a good nose round. They might
even think it's better than the last one they went too.
Alternatively you could opt for a very good level of ground
preperation, racking to a fine and even standard; You'll find that
entails a lot of movement akin to walking on it. You could just let
it sit for a couple of weeks and let nature do some of the compaction.
Either way you'll have to walk on it to sow or bring in the turfs. If
sowing, you'll have to walk on it to rack it it and if laying sods
you'll rack of each strip of ground as you go along, which means more
walking on it.

You'll have to walk on it to roll, though you could use a rope to
avoid walking on it, but that usually doesn't go as well as expected.
What I never understqnd is people using a roller just after laying
turfs. Using planks, on the rolled out strips of grass, during the
works, fine, good actually because one can use the planks to butt the
turfs tighter into the last line, but a roller is usually only around
65-75kgs in weight. The average puller is heavier, and they invariably
dig their heels in a bit to pull; This creates tiny indentations that
pools water and subsequently un-does some of the preparatory efforts.

In article , bill west
writes
I have just moved into a new house with a large rear garden 30m x 30m.

It has been rotavated over by builders, but it is very soft and loose,
with large lumps of clay.

Apart from the obvious brick ends that will have to remove, and giving
it a good rotavating over to make a fine bed.

Whats the best way of compacting the soil ready for turfing ??

Its too big to walk on, but its very sticky to use a roller.

Walking is the correct way to flatten an area of soil for a lawn. You
tramp sideways, putting each foot down where the other one was, and this
will compact the soil correctly. If there are then bumps and hollows,
rake it level and go through the above process again.

Rolling is no good for preparing a lawn, as the roller will pass over
soft areas without being able to compress them. You would then end up
with unwanted hollows when the soil settles.

Roy.
--
Roy Bailey
West Berkshire.