New Build Lawns

What is a Newbuild Lawn?

Simply put, a new build lawn is a lawn created on a new housing project. These often have their own specific problems.

Common issues

• Poor soil and preparation for the turf
• Heavily compacted, from machinery use
• Often laid with rubble close to the surface
• Often laid on building sand which isn’t suitable for the purpose
• The turf tends to be of a lower quality and might not be suitable for the area it is being used in
• Quickly becomes uneven due to the soil preparation
• The soil isn’t as active as it should be. The life in soil takes time to build because it has been turned over and piled up and then spread so a lot of the life has died out.
• As a result of compaction, water doesn’t penetrate below the surface which can lead to standing surface water and wet areas.

 

Solutions

• The quickest solution is to dig out the lawn area and replace the top 150mm of soil with good quality soil for grass. This is the most expensive solution, and requires a lot of equipment and removal of waste.

• Drainage can be done either land drains or vert drains, this can be a quick fix, but there are a couple of problems in that drainage cannot be turned off, so if it’s a dry year the soil can dry out quicker due to air movement drawing moisture from low in the soil profile, and drying out the root zone. The other issue is that if the soil is not improved the moisture, eventually, will not be able to make it’s way to the drainage system as the soil seals above it so rain water can still collect on the surface.

• The slower solution is to apply lawn treatments. I use treatments that feed the soil biology, with microbes, fungi, bacteria, mycorrhizae and other trace elements to encourage soil life. These help to reintroduce the life back into the soil, which in turn helps to improve the grass above.

• Additional treatments to help speed up this second process include :-

 • Gypsum which helps Flocculate. This is a process in which clay and other soil particles adhere to form larger groupings or aggregates, thereby coarsening the soil texture and making heavier soils easier to cultivate. This is best applied after aeration and is applied annually.

 • Compost Tea, with a Fungal Additive. This helps to mobilise organic matter in the soil and makes nutrients more available whilst reducing leaching. It is applied monthly. This has also been shown to help balance the soil to encourage fine grass growth and suppress the growth of Annual Meadow Grass, which is a more coarse grass and can be a bit unsightly in a lawn, and is quite common in new turf.

 • Biochar, which when it is inoculated acts as reservoir for nutrients, fungi, and bacteria. Also it holds up to six times it’s own weight in moisture which can help even out the moisture levels in the soil profile, allowing them to be available to the grass plants, rather than just washing off. This is a one off application as it doesn’t break down for many years.