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New lawn is about 4.5x3m or so, and there's plenty of topsoil but it's quite clay-ey. It's sticky and wet now, it sticks to my boots instantly; and in summer it'll go rock hard. So I was thinking of digging in compost. But do I want compost or what they call 'soil improver'? Am I right in thinking I don't want sand?
I have absolutely no idea but have seen a lot of recommendations for frozen sausages
You seem to be implying that you're going to dig your new lawn up, or is that the lawn at a new house?
If you want to improve an existing lawn without destroying it then aerate, ideally with hollow tines. You can use a garden fork but that adds a bit of local compaction rather than removing a core. About now is a good time
Add a seaweed dressing and then a thin (a few mm) layer of compost.
Repeat in the Autumn and in following years
You seem to be implying that you’re going to dig your new lawn up, or is that the lawn at a new house?
Yeah it's bare earth at the moment. We've completely re-landscaped the whole garden and the lawn is going to be new. The ground's not compacted now, but if I do nothing it will set like rock in the summer based on previous experience with the same soil.
Oh and hollow tine aerators don't work here. The tubes clog almost instantly.
There are pros and cons to incorporating organic matter into a new lawn. The grass will love it but as it decomposes further the surface can get a bit lumpy. Also you'll provide food for a lot of worms but that'll result in more worm casts.
For this reason on a golf course or fine lawn the grounds person will avoid organic matter and grow the grass in a very sandy soil. Indeed greens can be 100% sand.
This gives fantastic drainage and good aeration for the roots of the grass but all nutrition will need to be supplied in the form of pelleted fertiliser.
Personally I've improved sticky lawns by adding vast amounts of very fine grit to the surface over a couple of consecutive years using a top dressing technique. It seems to then stay good for a long time.
P.S. hollow tine aeration should have the cores cleared up and sand backfilled into the holes to stop them closing up.
Ideally dig 6" clay out, add drainage for any frequently soggy areas and replace the clay with decent topsoil.
If you decide to just dig the clay over then my preference is to add compost rather than sand, but apparently adding gypsum is very good although I haven't tried it