Here is a question for someone. A friend of mine is in a new (1 year old) townhouse complex. The landscaping is holding up so far. Decent plant material, the spacing is a little suspect but it's reasonable for now. The turf however will likely suffer.it's reasonable in some places really weary looking in others. I have a bad feeling that the standard rush to get the occupancy permits spurred on the contractors to lay the sod over a good inch of sand/and top soil (for leveling on the construction fill you know..) and that's all. So her question to me is- what now? Other than ripping out and redoing, what method of top dressing would be the best route to go? I was thinking it would require a few gentle top dressings over time to build up a root system. I also think the irrigation needs to be watched so that the soil isn't being deluged away. Has anybody had experience (and a solution) with this problem?
Aerate , remove the plugs and send to the compost, top dress with a sand and soil mixture (soil suppiers will usually have a lawn top dress blend), overseed at 1 kilo of seed to 1000 to 2000 square feet. repeat annually or bi-annually depending on results.
A townhouse complex with similar issues found a couple major problems. The turf was being cut very short with machines that damaged the grass even more with sharp turns creating a muddy mess in spots. Secondly, the turf simply seemed nutrient deficient. The solution was to beg the maintenance gardeners to cut as high as allowable, and be more careful esp. in wet weather to avoid the muddy patches. This allows the roots to grow deeper--roots seem to somewhat mirror the above ground growth...a longer leaf seeming to support a longer root. And secondly, fertilizing. Interesting that the maintenance didn't include any fertilizing of the lawn, which seemed to need it at least in the early stages of trying to get established. Newly laid turf has such short roots, it can't access much nutrition in the soil like an older lawn that has roots exploring a much larger, deeper area. I know the landscape installer in this case, and specs were followed properly in prepping and laying the turf. The problems were largely due to what happened once the lawn was turned over to others to maintain.
