Hey guys,
Title is a bit extreme, but I think I've royally f*cked up part of the prep for a new lawn as a result of time pressures and the weather and I'm clawing to anything not to rip it up.
It's a narrow strip across the back of the house that was on a good slope (dropped 500-600mm over 5m). I built a retaining sleeper wall across the length approx 18m long, backfilled behind it with gravel (5-6 inches) and geotextile and dropped a land drain at the bottom of the gravel to create an equal void and distribute pressure across the wall. The width is now around 4.5m from front to back.
In order create that drainage channel I used old grass blocks I've dug up in other areas like bricks and that seems a good solution at the time to retain the gravel.
The rest of the back fill has been spoil (2x grab) and top soil (1x grab) although I am beginning to suspect that quality of the top is poor and its holding alot of water.
The weather has been crap, so the prep/compaction of the top soil layer was very poor (no chance of getting my compacter on it) and the turf turned up on Friday. Felt a little pressured to get it down Saturday when the weather was good but I now know I would have been OK to leave it until Sunday/Monday (contrary to what everyone was telling me). I think this day of lost prep cost me big time
I've never done this before so I gathered some help to get it down on Saturday but given everything I had put down was sodden I didn't really see another choice but to go over it with dry soil and compact as well as I could with a 3m soil pipe to at least get it flat with a small drop to the back.
Since Saturday we've had two days of moderate rain and I've been watering it for an hour each morning.
However, the top layer of soil (4-5inches) almost feels fluid underneath so any sort of weight not on a couple of long boards is moving everything around. I can't see how this will rectify itself when the roots establish. So far the grass itself seems to be doing well and there is no visible waterlogging on the surface.
I think this is a combination of everything really:
* Top soil is not great quality holding too much water
* Not enough compaction by myself
* Maybe should have installed some land drains perpendicular to the wall
Is there anything I can do to help the situation without ripping it up?
I don't want to wait 4 weeks and find out things havent improved and run in to winter with a mess, but I'm not very confident that things will get better naturally...
Some ideas I've had:
* Continue rollering every few days with the drainage pipe. Its light that it wont stress the grass too much, but will compact it by maybe 10-15% and keeps the surface flat
* Drill some bore holes in the back of the retaining wall and insert perforated drainage pipe (40-60mm) every 3/4m so take some excess water out of the ground. Wont be able to wrap the pipe in any geotextile but needs must
* Cry
Thanks for any input
Title is a bit extreme, but I think I've royally f*cked up part of the prep for a new lawn as a result of time pressures and the weather and I'm clawing to anything not to rip it up.
It's a narrow strip across the back of the house that was on a good slope (dropped 500-600mm over 5m). I built a retaining sleeper wall across the length approx 18m long, backfilled behind it with gravel (5-6 inches) and geotextile and dropped a land drain at the bottom of the gravel to create an equal void and distribute pressure across the wall. The width is now around 4.5m from front to back.
In order create that drainage channel I used old grass blocks I've dug up in other areas like bricks and that seems a good solution at the time to retain the gravel.
The rest of the back fill has been spoil (2x grab) and top soil (1x grab) although I am beginning to suspect that quality of the top is poor and its holding alot of water.
The weather has been crap, so the prep/compaction of the top soil layer was very poor (no chance of getting my compacter on it) and the turf turned up on Friday. Felt a little pressured to get it down Saturday when the weather was good but I now know I would have been OK to leave it until Sunday/Monday (contrary to what everyone was telling me). I think this day of lost prep cost me big time
I've never done this before so I gathered some help to get it down on Saturday but given everything I had put down was sodden I didn't really see another choice but to go over it with dry soil and compact as well as I could with a 3m soil pipe to at least get it flat with a small drop to the back.
Since Saturday we've had two days of moderate rain and I've been watering it for an hour each morning.
However, the top layer of soil (4-5inches) almost feels fluid underneath so any sort of weight not on a couple of long boards is moving everything around. I can't see how this will rectify itself when the roots establish. So far the grass itself seems to be doing well and there is no visible waterlogging on the surface.
I think this is a combination of everything really:
* Top soil is not great quality holding too much water
* Not enough compaction by myself
* Maybe should have installed some land drains perpendicular to the wall
Is there anything I can do to help the situation without ripping it up?
I don't want to wait 4 weeks and find out things havent improved and run in to winter with a mess, but I'm not very confident that things will get better naturally...
Some ideas I've had:
* Continue rollering every few days with the drainage pipe. Its light that it wont stress the grass too much, but will compact it by maybe 10-15% and keeps the surface flat
* Drill some bore holes in the back of the retaining wall and insert perforated drainage pipe (40-60mm) every 3/4m so take some excess water out of the ground. Wont be able to wrap the pipe in any geotextile but needs must
* Cry
Thanks for any input