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By: Angus Cheyne
Here is how to order and lay your 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.
When you order your turf from TurfandStuff, you get the delivery
on the weekday of your choice. You enter your required delivery
date in the box at step 4 of the checkout procedure. You can
even be hyper-organised and plan this up to 1 month ahead.
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. Follow this link for the suitable fertiliser
for this task:
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 turve.
DO NOT stretch the turve or you will get shrinkage later.
If you are happy with the angle of your first turve, roll
out the next one. Push the starting edge of the second turve
hard against the first one make sure to butt all joins up
tightly. Do not have turves overlapping on top of already
laid turf. You can use the back of the rake to pull the turves
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.
About The Author
Angus Cheyne is a lawncare expert and his product can be seen
at http://www.turfandstuff.com/index.php and http://www.lawnwizard.co.uk.
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