The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California

Small Home Landscaping

Whether this soil can be improved sufficiently to make a lawn or whether you need topsoil is a question of cost as well as of the topsoil itself. Poor topsoil is a menace on a lawn and you're better off without it. On the other hand, the quickest way to a good lawn is an adequate covering of good topsoil. The minimum depth needed is four inches. At this depth, one cubic yard is needed to eighty square feet. The best grade of topsoil should have at least ten per cent humus, more if possible; it should test somewhere about pH 5.5 to pH 7.0. In color it should be dark brown to almost black. The very black lumpy material is not always topsoil, but dried muck taken from swamps and usually it is acid. Good topsoil should have a gritty feeling, the grit being sand needed to give porosity. Good topsoil is expensive.

It is often possible to reduce the quantity of purchased soil by improving, to some extent, the existing soil by adding organic matter. This is the great lack of all these soils. Without organic matter grass sod is almost impossible to obtain. If there is any green covering at all, even weeds, dig it into the soil. If the weeds have seeds destroy them. If the ground is bare, peat moss will act as an improver. One bale will cover 300 square ft. one inch deep, and it has no weed seed problem. This is worked into the top three inches and provides a good base for a covering of two inches of topsoil, giving a good foundation for a lawn. Or you can double the quantity of peat moss and add some commercial humus, dig it in deeper to ten inches and dispense with purchased topsoil. A thorough mixing of these materials with the soil plus a breaking down of all lumps until the soil is in a friable condition should leave the area ready for the next operation.

Lime is needed now if you used the quantity of organic matter suggested. Lime is applied at two lbs. per 100 square ft., then raked into the surface. The safest to use is ground lime or agricultural lime. It is difficult to spread evenly, unless you have a mechanical spreader. Lime spreads more easily if mixed several times its bulk with sand or soil.

Two to three days later, apply fertilizer. Several brands are manufactured especially for lawns. Select one that is in general use in your own locality. Most in general use are, 10-6-4, 6-10-4, and 8-6-4 mixtures. Often a general, all-purpose fertilizer like 5-10-5 will do. Use two lbs. per 100 square ft. and thoroughly mix it with the top three inches of the surface.