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TOPSOIL FACTS FOR YOUR LAWN*
Benefits of Proper and Complete Soil Preparation
- Improved Uniformity
- Increased Density
- Faster recovery from wear
- Reduced Use of water and fertilizer
- Reduced Maintenance
Why Is Good Soil Important? 
For optimum growth, turfgrass needs just four things to grow: Sunlight, Air, Water and Nutrients.
Reduce any of these, or provide too much of any one, and the grass may die or simply suffer. In the right proportions, the grass will flourish, providing not only beauty to the landscape, but also a clean, safe place to play with many benefits to the environment.
Unbeknown to some, grass obtains three of these four essential factors (air, water and nutrients) from the soil, but many soils are less than ideal for growing grass.
Example of Less Than Ideal Soil
Some soils contain too much clay and may be very compacted... great for roads, bad for grass. When soil is compacted with too much clay, air and water aren't available to the roots and the roots can't grow.
Other soils may have too much sand... beautiful on a beach, but difficult to grow grass because water and nutrients won't stay in the root zone long enough for the plant to use.
Another frequently observed problem with many soils is that its pH (the degree of acidity or alkalinity) is too high or two low for optimum grass growth.
What Is The Best Soil For Turfgrass?
Loams, sandy loams and loamy sands, with a pH of 6.0 to 7.0 are the very best soils for producing a beautiful, high-use, low-maintenance lawn. Unfortunately, this idea soil mixture is seldom found on any property after construction. When sodding a lawn, new or re-new, it is important to make sure you’re the Soil you are putting down is of sandy loam property with a pH of 6.0 to 7.0 for optimum grass growth in the Maritime climate.
How Deep Should the Soil Be For Turfgrass?
According to the industry standard, the absolute minimum quality soil depth for a care-free lawn is 4 inches. For deeper root penetration and the benefits that brings, the accepted standard is 6 inches.
Site Preparation Steps
"The beauty is in the blades, but the 'action' is in the roots," is a good adage to remember when growing grass.
The value of proper site preparation and soil improvement, before any planting takes place, is that it will be easier for the grass roots to penetrate deeply and evenly. Deep roots will make the lawn more drought resistant, a more efficient water and nutrient user, and more dense as new grass plant shoots emerge. A dense lawn crowds out weeds and better resists insects and disease.
With the careful degree of soil preparation, the resultant lawn will be absolutely beautiful and require less maintenance, smaller quantities of applied water and fertilizer as it maintains a high degree of density and uniformity and recovers much more rapidly from wear.
For years to come, your investment in soil preparations and quality nursery sod will yield a high return.
*data sourced from the Turf Resource Centre
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