How To Lay Lawn Turf

Here is how to order and lay lawn turf:

Order your turf only after you have completed all the preparations.
Arrange for your turf to arrive no more than 1 day before you plan to
lay it. When it arrives, if the weather is hot and dry, soak the
outside of the pallet with water, making sure to apply plenty water
to the ends of rolls that are showing. You should order an appropriate
pre-turfing fertiliser with your turf.

How to lay turf:

Stage 1:

Sprinkle pre-turfing fertiliser evenly over the area. Rake lightly
to incorporate it and give the finished smooth surface.

Stage 2:

It is time to lay the turf. You can either lay turf whilst standing
on the prepared ground or whilst standing on laid turf with the use
of boards to prevent marking your new lawn. If you stand on the
soil, give each new row a light rake to remove your foot marks.

Stage 3:

Start from a long straight edge and roll out a turf. DO NOT
stretch the turf or you will get shrinkage later. If you are happy
with the angle of your first turf, roll out the next one. Push the
starting edge of the second turf hard against the first one, making
sure to butt all joins up tightly. Do not have turf overlapping
on top of already laid turf. You can use the back of the rake to
pull the turf tightly together.

Stage 4:

You do not need to roll or tamp the turf at this stage except at
the joins or edges. However if you have a very light roller this
can be used to increase the turf to soil contact. Make sure and
manually flatten the very start (centre) of the roll of turf (where
the harvesting machine first turned the turf) As it is always
misshapen.

Stage 5:

If you have gaps created through poor cutting or uneven turf sizes,
you can blend the edges closer together by manually stretching,
almost tearing the edges. (like flattening out dough). The turf
will contract back a bit but you do improve the join. If the gaps
are too big for that, use a Stanley knife to cut slivers from your
off cuts of turf and squeeze these into the join. Remember wherever
you do that type of join, will need extra water to aid recovery.

Stage 6:

Here's a little secret used by turf laying professionals to
increase the "wow" factor on a new lawn.
Roll out your alternate rows in opposite directions. This gives a good
striped "just mown" appearance. Do not use small cuttings at edges
of lawn. Use them in the middle.

Stage 7:

It is best to do your edges last, leave enough turf overlapping
your proposed edge, that once you are done, you can lay a hose or
rope on the edge and use an edging iron to shape your turf. This
can be left quite rough, you can smooth this off easier when the
turf has rooted in a couple of weeks.

Stage 8:
When you are done, unless a good amount of rain is
forecast, you must water the grass. If you can't apply water due to
hosepipe bans or water meters, then leave turf laying to the
autumn/winter season This must be a very good soak, it may take
several hours of sprinkler to put on enough. This must be repeated
regularly for 1 month.

That's you done.

Angus Cheyne is a land based scientist specialising in laying and maintaining lawn turf.

See his work at http://www.turfandstuff.com/index.php and http://www.lawnwizard.co.uk.

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