soil for lawn

[frossie]

For the impatient the questions are:

Where's a good place to order soil from, how much depth do I need for lawn, and what is a good grass seed for this area?

The long story of it is: Our lot is not cleared or graded which is great - it has native vegetation, lava features etc. However when our baby came we wanted a little lawn area where she can safely run around barefoot, maybe put up a climbing frame and have a soft landing if she falls off.

We had a bit of flat area around the back of the house (about 500 square feet) and thought that would be a good place. I tried ringing around a bunch of landscapers, none were taking on work. Somebody finally recommended their neighbour - bad idea, he took a pile of our money and didn't do a very good job.

The idea was to build a little foot high rock wall to retain the soil and then make a lawn inside by laying some soil over the cinder and putting down seed (I should have started to worry when he told me he would put down turf and then found he couldn't buy any in Hawaii - clearly hadn't done this before!). However there are three problems:

• The layer of soil is very thin - prob. about half an inch, so it is still very hard to fall on


• The grass is not thriving (probably due to the above, or it's not right for the climate) - in 8 months I've never had to cut it, it's still only about 1/4 inch high


• The weeds like it just fine! I know I should feed the lawn by now but I am thinking all I will be doing is feeding the weeds.

I figure the way to recover is to try and pull up all the weeds (most of the existing soil will probably come up with them) as I don't really want to put poison down because of the baby. Then lay down a good quantity of soil (how much? where from?) and start again (with what seed?).

So I am grateful for any advice on this. Also, I am planning on doing this myself but if anybody can recommend an honest and COMPETENT person who can do this I would also consider that.

[pslamont]

Frossie, grass grows very well in the crushed cinder even without soil. If I were doing it myself I would do a "weed and feed" on the grass that is there... there are products that simultaneously kill the weeds and feed the grass. Give it a try; you have nothing to lose.

If the grass all dies with this application, get a new grass seed bag (home depot comes to mind), follow the instructions especially about keeping it well watered.

I expect you can have good grass. It does take a while.

I can bring you a truck of soil but you really don't need it. The cinder works really well.

Oh, and OFF SUBJECT TOTALLY, the family that got the goats are THRILLED. Their children had no idea goats could be so fun and friendly. They have fenced in 7 acres and are letting them rum wild for the most part.

Pam

Just another day in P A R A D I S E !!

[Rob Tucker]

I would agree that you start with cinder. Probably black cinder. Put several inches down. This will be an excellent cushion under the grass and something a child can bounce on.

I did mix in an inch or so of soil on the top of the cinder base. Something to hold some moisture for the the roots was my thinking.

I had little luck with store bought grass seed. It would sprout and look brilliantly green for a little while then die out. What worked best was bringing in some plugs of grass I think of as Australian Creeper. Might be the wrong name. But is it a low hardy grass, seems to do well in sun or shade and sends out runners to eventually weave a carpet of low lying grass. I'm very happy with it and it tends to dominate the weaker grasses.

That's my 2 cents....

[pslamont]

What everyone should know is that Rob's two cents is usually worth about a thousand dollars!

Just another day in P A R A D I S E !!

[Hotzcatz]

I've never had much luck with grass seed - no matter what variety or which sort even the ones which are supposed to do well here. What has worked quite well though is grass plugs like Rob mentioned. Paradise Plants usually has flats of grass which can be sectioned into small plugs to spread around.

The other option is to find grasses growing locally to your yard which are doing well and getting starts of those. The fellow who lived in our house before we did found some sort of lovely low growing fine leaved grass which he relocated and nurtured in the back by the shed. That variety of grass has taken over that level of the back yard and it hardly ever needs to be cut or watered.

Another person I know has a lovely yard by keeping their pet duck in a small eight by ten enclosure that they put a layer of cinders in. The duck fertilizes the cinders and sloshes water all over the place. After a month or so of site preparation, they move the duck pen over one square and seed the area where the duck had been. They water the new lawn and then water the duck and move him a month later. As the duck pen moves away from them the new lawn areas get less water but by then the grass is ready to grow on it's own.

[Tolleys]

My neighbor put in a lawn from seed over 1000'sq ft. He purchased Seashore Paspalum from an online suppler in Oregon. The seed price, including priority mail shipping, is much cheaper then anything we found on island. About $240 for 5lbs of seed including shipping. (actually might be cheaper now) Garden Exchange, when we last checked, was $85/lb.

Website: http://www.outsidepride.com/catalog/Seas...17947.html

It has been very successful, except for some rogue grass infiltration from ajacent areas. It is still filling in, but almost done. It has been about 6-7 weeks. In addition to the seed he bought flats from Home Depot and plugged the areas where the roof runs off and the catchment over flows to prevent seed wash out. The plugs are slower then the seed, but seen less susceptible to yellowing from lack of water. Makes sense, better root system.

Bed prep - He put a thin layer of soil over the existing cinder. However, he thinks he would purchase cinder soil if he had to do it again. The soil had significant clay clumps which added more labor.



Susan