Growing Grass On Hard Clay Soil

Clay is only ever at a good moisture level for a very short time between being an airless wet mud and dry and hard as a brick.

Growing grass on hard clay soil.

A bone dry clay soil is going to be rock hard and not allow water nutrients to get into the rootzone when the temperature start to get cooler but before the leaves start dropping start by aerating your lawn followed by an over seeding of appropriate seed type and apply an organic fertilizer. Clay soil usually does not drain well which is a problem for grasses that do not do well with their roots in water saturated soil and grass roots can have a difficult. If you have a new home in an area that has hard clay soil you may feel like you are trying to get grass to grow on concrete or peanut butter depending on moister of the soil when you build a home the contractor will dig a hole for the foundation and pile up the soil. A good way to determine the soil s moisture content is by sticking a screwdriver into the soil to a depth.

Step 1 remove all the existing weeds and grass from the area to be seeded. The previous lawn died and needs to be replaced. The lack of organic materials in the soil composition makes it hard for plants like grass on your lawn to thrive. Clay soil is not the ideal medium in which to grow turf grass.

Varieties that grow in a clay loam soil include annual ryegrass colonial bent grass hard fescue kentucky bluegrass perennial ryegrass and red fescue. Clay consists of very fine particles that tend to bind tightly together creating a heavy dense compacted soil. It is possible but there is some hard work and expense involved. There are very few air pockets under the soil surface and grass.

Plant warm season grasses as plugs from. Most grass seed will grow in various soil types. However clay soil is perhaps the most difficult to work with. Grass is not a strong competitor against many weeds so getting the roots out is critical.

Couple this with the fact that clay is highly alkaline and you get one of the worst soils to grow turf on. This can be done with a tiller an herbicide or by hand weeding. In a nutshell you have to correct your soil s ph add organic material and overseed. Clay soil is made up of tons of small particles that stick together clinging to moisture.

That s because it is extremely heavy and thick. An unamended clay soil will never grow a good lawn as grass roots suffocate in the airless environment drowning when the clay is wet and baking when it s dry. You can do the same. I have battled clay soil and turned it into my friend.