New lawn in November

[DIYNovice07]

Is it ok to lay a new turf lawn this late in the year, i remeber reading somewhere its ok in October/November but that was on a sellers website so i thought i'd double check?

Also any tips in actually laying it, i notice my soil was a bit on the clay side, would i need a load of new topsoil or would a bit of fertaliser be ok?

 

[r896neo]

A bit late to lay turf in my opinion. You will get very little/ no growth before early spring and so the turf won't root and will get very easily waterlogged leaving you with a raft of turf. This will be excentuated by your clay type soil.

If you can deal with the grubby look of the intended lawn area all winter definately wait. Then in march add plenty of sharp sand to improve your drainage and i bit of fertilizer. (heavy in nitrogen for root development)
Turn it over well to incorperate the sand then lay your turf.

If you must do it now again use plenty of nitrogen rich fertilizer and even more sand. Spike the ground well too, best waiting though if you can.

 

[DIYNovice07]

Thanks, the garden had prevously had sheets with lots of pebbles on them. it had been negleted and so very overgrow etc. would mixing in some of these little stones help the clay soil?

It was a bit depressing, I took up all the sheets and gravel to find out there was only about an inch of soil until i hit concrete blocks. I've taken up most of concrete now but theres still a lot of work left so i propable wouldn't be able to lay lawn till next week and id have to work pretty hard (weather permitting) to reach this deadline as i get back after dark on weekdays.

I guess i'll leave the lawn till spring.

 

[r896neo]

Yea i would leave the lawn till spring if you can. It's a bit of a chore but get rid of the stones if possible, and if your leaving it till spring why not sow instead of turf?

 

[Thermo]

put some decent topsoil down. we lay lawns all year round (in the south east) apart from when there is a frost on the ground. The lawns laid over winter take the best no comparison

 

[breezer]

bloke on the radio (was it YOU thermo) said he still cuts lawns in november and that grass grows until its 4 degrees, most other plants stop at 10 degrees.

oh, the bloke said he is a landscape gardener

 

[Thermo]

no wasnt me maybe i should apply!

Grass will still grow. will root better which is the most important thing, its not about the top growth. It will get less foot traffic so it suffers less damage when being established and normally has more moisture through rainfall and dew. Most lawns we lay in winter have normally taken and the joints dissapeared withing 2-3 weeks.

 

[breezer]

you dont need to apply, its a phone in.

LBC 97.3

(other phone in radio shows are available)

 

[PE]

Had a new lawn laid last week and some top growth can already be seen but as Thermo said, more importantly it seems to be knitting together very quickly. Can already see the joins slowly disappearing even after a week

We had ours done this time of year as we have two small children so the lack of kids playing on the turf should give it a much better chance of taking this time of year and also don't need to worry about watering it as much as in the height of summer

Our landscapers brought in lots of screened top soil and spent ages spreading it and levelling it, seemed to be a great deal of attention paid to this part of the process before the lawn was laid. We also are in a very clay based soil area

 

[Thermo]

laying the turf is easy. its the laying and preparing of the topsoil thats the time consuming and important thing

 

[WabbitPoo]

When do you think cricket grounds get re-laid? Yep, over the winter. Go for it.

 

[lx200gps]

Have to agree with Thermo here. Now is a very good time as the lawn will have a chance to take a foothold before next spring. Same with shrubs really. If you lay it in spring you are asking it to establish roots at the same time it wants to put up shoots. This can be stressful, whereas, if you lay now the short days and drop in temp will mean the growth is slowed considerably so it only has to worry about root development. Also, you can get dry windy periods in spring which means you will have to water extensively. This is much less of an issue, obviously, in autumn and winter.

I'm still cutting lawns right up to mid-December usually. Makes me laugh when people put away their mowers in early October and get them out again in late March, only to discover the grass is a foot high. Out comes the strimmer before going over with the mower. Then they wonder why the grass has gone yellow!!

Mr Pickles