Soil prep for laying down a good lawn

[jim_wilson]

Agree... you're main concern is gonna be drainage.. When you said 'clay' I was thinking the clay I had.. Adobe type clay. It cracks when dry Needed a lot of peat moss and compost.

When I mentioned clay earlier I was just making the assumption that because of what I've seen with the properties of this soil - the fact that I can pickup a handful of it and make a ball with it when it's even semi-moist - that it must have a high clay content.

 

[Midniteoyl]

It does.. all the suggestions so far are good ones. It wouldnt hurt at all if you wanted to put in some sand, peat moss, compost and manure. They are all good. My main things to till in and get you started would be the peat moss (a good amount) and compost w/manure. These two things are what will get you well on the way to 'black soil'. The manure is to jump start the nutrients and bugs needed for 'black soil', and is done rather lightly. Mine was a compost mixture of about 98% compost and 2% manure that I picked up from a local supplier. Sand is to help improve the drainage if needed. I dont really think it'll do much good in your case, but it cant hurt.

BTW - While I was at all this, I buried several 4" slotted black drain pipes in an 's' pattern about 18" down and connected them to my gutter drains that ran out to the ditch. With the tilled 12" or so on top, when the rain really hit, you could see water coming from those pipes for a day after. Really helped the 'ponding' effect.

 

[Carl_NH]

Jim,

I suggested the stone and sand for drainage along with pipe like Midniteoyl suggests - essentially making a 4-6" layer of permeable material with drainage pipes then put down the topsoil.

I wouldn't go crazy but dig a few trenches in the downhill direction and lay in pipe and cover with stone, then backfill the entire area with sand then your topsoil on top of everything.

Carl