Soil- How deep for grass to grow?

[jblack]

Hello All,

I'm in the process of breaking up an old concrete path in our garden. As luck would have it I've discovered a layer of concrete on another layer of older concrete which is on a load of old house bricks .

My question is; How deep does new topsoil need to be for grass seed to grow? i.e. do I need to remove all these layers of bricks etc or can I get away with just the first layer or two?

Also, is it just a case of putting the topsoil down, treading it, then throwing the seed on or is there more to it?

TIA Guys

 

[breezer]

mr titchmarsh, digs it with a fork, warks on it with his heels rakes it then lays turf

grass will grow on almost anydepth, the problem i think is that of "neutriants" id soil is too shallow grass will grow but not very well, i would suggest if its 6inches deep it shold be ok.

grass from seed feeds the birds, takes ages to grow, i prefer turf myself (when we had grass)

 

[STENDEC]

There needs to be at least 15 centimeters of good soil for the grass to even grow half as well as it should. Less than that and you will have a patchy yellow and sparse lawn within a year. You will probably never have a lush green lawn if you lay turf on top of concrete....not unless the soil is very deep (at least 40 cms) The concrete will leach out the nutrients and moisture in the soil very quickly.

You could try to put some plastic with sufficient drainage holes on top of the concrete before adding the soil and turf on top. This would act as a barrier to the concrete. However, if you dont get enough drainage it will mean you have a soggy mossy lawn instead! Its a fine line to tread but worth a try if you have only got a minimal depth to play with.

 

[Diyisfun]

Grass will grow on dust. Its the drainage & long term lasting is why you need a soil depth

 

[STENDEC]

Yep. Thats what my post says in the first line.

 

[Diyisfun]

jblack
My question is; How deep does new topsoil need to be for grass seed to grow?

Thats the answer I gave, I thought.
With the delay in your comment. The grass must be looking good now.

 

[Dewy]

A bowling green is probably a 6" (150mm for youngsters) layer of good soil on top of loads of rubble, gravel and sand for drainage.
Break up the concrete and ram it down with gravel on top then put a layer of good free draining soil on top.
Sandy soil? add peat to retain moisture.
Clay soil? add peat to aid drainage.
Many may say to use an alternative but peat beats them all hands down.

When we moved into a new house when I was a kid my father prepared the soil well on top of all the building rubble left behind.
To stop most of the seed being taken by birds he used a new thing which was not readily available.
Polythene sheeting which aircraft engine parts had been transported in from over the pond.
He used sticks to hold it a few inches above the soil.
This was intended to keep the birds off but acted like a greenhouse.
Our doctor came out to see my brother and was eager to find out more about this new sheeting that had started the lawn off so well.

 

[timbo29]

Hi all,
I have been experiencing a similar problem to this recently.
I live in a victorian property with a rear yard. When i moved in there were paving slabs in the rear yard with weeds growing through, further more some of the slabs were smashed from the guys van before.
I sold the good ones on ebay and i was happy for someone to come and pick them up- however i was thinking it was going to be sand and soil, but i cannot dig easily as there seams to be large pieces of concrete in the ground.

i can only presume i have two options?
1 provide a lot of soil and reseed the area. Now i can only presume that i will need 14sq.m x 0.15m of soil - 2.1cu.m of soil is quite alot!
2 astroturf the existing sand bedding. Does anyone know a good place to buy this from? Could not find it on b and q to find sq.m price

Thoughts muchly appreciated

Thanks
Tim

 

[Newboy]

http://search.diy.com/search#w=artificial grass&asug=

might be useful