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January 05, 2009, 10:22:05 PM

Permaculture Forums | substance | lawn care | Topic: Clay soil

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Clay soil

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H Bard
Posts: 1

April 11, 2005, 10:51:10 AM

I enjoyed reading your article and found it very informative.

My yard is all clay soil. You mention in your article "If you have the bucks, you can have a foot and a half of topsoil dropped on your existing lawn and then plant new grass seed and start over. Soil on top of dirt ain't bad."

I'm in the process of grading my land. My landscaper suggested adding only 4 inches of topsoil. Is that not enough?


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paul wheaton
Administrator
Posts: 1471

western WA

April 11, 2005, 11:51:32 AM

It depends on what's underneath.

If what you are covering is 14 inches of okay stuff, then adding 4 more inches is excellent!

If what you are covering is rock solid clay, then four inches is better than 2 inches. 18 inches would be optimal, but it might make your house look like it's sinking!

Tall fescue will shoot roots down 18 inches only if there is 18 inches of stuff to shoot roots into! Most weeds will shoot roots down only two or three inches. Plus, everything uses up the water in the top few inches first. Then when that is gone, moves on to the lower soil.

One could argue to have shallow soil and then put in a sprinkler system. They could say that a sprinkler system could be cheaper than all that topsoil.


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j.bruce
Posts: 17

April 11, 2005, 03:58:35 PM

hmmm, i'm in the process of sheetmulching right now. The same principals are applied. The "okay" soil was covered with 1-3" of hay and straw, then covered with cardbord, on top of that I'm laying 4-5" of mushroom compost and topsoil. After all of that, i'm going to apply some form of mulch, most likely straw as i've taken to it's appearance. I'm hoping things will grow here. i guess i'll have to see!


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York, PA, United States
USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 6 (6a-7a)
Annual Rainfall = 62"
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