lawn drys out – not enough top soil – HELP
angie – posted 03 April 2009 14:54
I am in Southern California (Temecula) and when my sod was installed, they brought in top soil and gypsum. About 40 percent of my lawn drys out and I am tired of watering half my lawn by hand every day to get it enough water. I payed for an automatic sprinkler system and a good lawn – I would like to have it work that way (I know, in a perfect world.) Anyway, there was a trench dug in the middle of my yard which they filled in before installing sod and where that trench was, it doesn’t dry out in that line, but it does on both sides. So, I am thinking there wasn’t enough top soil put down.
Does anyone know if this is probably the case. The soil here isn’t so great. It does NOT abosrb the water very well. If this is the case, would aerating solve the problem (what kind of aerating should I do, when and how often – once, every 6 months, every spring, etc?) And if I do need to aerate, should I pour sand over the lawn and rake it in or something? What should I do. I don’t want to ruin the lawn I just had installed with my “fix”.
Anyway, any help I could get would be much appreciated. Thank you so much.
tommy – posted 04 April 2009 20:28
Yep, you have hard soil areas which is causing shallow roots, which in turn drys out quicker-compared to the deeply rooted trench line. Aerification will definitely help! Once a year usually does the trick, and you can also apply ‘Gro power plus'(5-2-1) afterwards. This product has humus and a soil penetrant. You can only find it at “old time nursrey’s” like Walter Andersons- and I think I saw it at Dixieline lumber. (For those of you in the rest of the country, I am referring to the San Diego area). There is also a product called ‘Worm gold plus’ (worm castings) which I have never tried, but is supposed to be great for the soil. The only probem is, I was reading the bag one day,(at Dixieline) and tried to flip the bag over to read the other side, and the damn thing weighs about a thousand pounds! haha Its the heaviest bag of organic material I have ever seen!
I almost forgot Do Not over water. Floratan /Seville all strains of St. Augustine are suseptible to fungus from over…
I am from the north and it has taken me five yrs to learn and undertand seville lawns. No 1…
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