How to lay turf: advantages & expert guidance

Rolls of turf is the convenient alternative to seeding the lawn. Find out how to lay turf and everything that goes with it.

Laying turf is the fastest way to get a beautiful lawn with a dense turf. Many amateur gardeners imagine it goes something like this: just roll it out and you are done! Unfortunately, it is not quite that easy. After all, there is strenuous soil preparation to be carried out before laying turf, just as there is before sowing turf.

Advantages over sowing the lawn

Laying turf is tempting in many ways. Within a day, a brown earth surface is transformed into a soft green carpet of grass with a beautiful, dense turf. After only two to three weeks, the lawn is firmly rooted to the ground and can is ready for gentle use. The time saved until it can bear weight compared to lawn seeding is ultimately up to three months. Another advantage of lawn turf is its quality. High quality turf is free of weeds, the density of grasses is ideal and there are no damaged areas. In addition, turf is less sensitive to drought compared to turf seed and is therefore more flexible in terms of when it can be laid.

Buying turf: costs and requirements

Lawn turf, also called ready turf, is sown on special, often sandy to slightly clayey cultivation areas and ideally maintained for one year. In most cases, the high-quality seed mixtures, sown at optimal density and properly supplied with water and nutrients, result in a dense, weed–free turf lawn. After about a year, the turf is peeled off with a special tool about one and a half to two inches below the soil surface, so that most of the root felt is preserved. Usually thin strips of about 50 cm wide and one and a half to two and a half metres long are rolled up like a carpet. For corners, curves and other uneven surfaces, the sods can be easily cut to size.

Prices for turf and laying

Of course, the advantages of lawn turf come at a price. The range and the difference in quality is huge, and as a result so too are the prices. Typically, the price decreases with increasing square metres and is about 10 euros per square metre. Many turf producers offer the option for you to pick up the rolled turf yourself. This makes the purchase a little cheaper and is also good for small areas with a spacious vehicle. However, for larger areas, remember that the rolls take up quite a bit of space and also weigh quite a bit due to the soil, which is contained in a root layer up to 2 cm thick. With up to 20 kg for 1 m² roll turf, picking it up yourself could be pretty stressful above a certain quantity.

Choosing the right lawn turf

Since the composition of the seed is the most important factor for a beautiful and resilient lawn in the long term, it is worth asking carefully about the combination of grasses. High proportions of perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne) and Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis) suggest a good composition for hard–wearing play and a general purpose lawn. Fine–leaved species such as creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera) and common bent (Agrostis capillaris), on the other hand, are better known for their special ornamental value. Bluegrass (Poa supina) is typical of turf specifically designed for shaded areas. If you find the grasses Lolium westerwoldicum, Lolium multiflorum and Festuca pratensis in the grass composition of a rolled lawn, you’d be better off without. These three cheap grass varieties, which are not suitable for garden use but for agriculture, suggest poor quality.

Pay attention to the perfect condition

Rolled up turf is living turf, which can dry out or even rot. To prevent this, the rolled turf will be happy if it comes back into contact with soil – that is, is laid – as soon as possible (at best within 36 hours, at worst after 48 hours). As a result, turf manufacturers who pay particular attention to high quality, cut and roll the turf to order. If for some reason it is not possible to lay the turf after 36 hours, the turf can be saved, especially in dry weather, by rolling it out in a shady place and gently moistening it.

How to lay turf: step by step guide

1. Choose the time

In principle, turf can be laid at any time – except for periods of frost. However, depending on the temperature and precipitation conditions, the conditions for the growth of turf roots vary. Temperatures between 15 and 20 degrees Celsius and sufficient moisture are optimal for the roots to grow together with the soil. The better the conditions for the roots to grow, the faster the lawn will become capable of bearing weight. The most favourable time for laying lawn turf, as well as for sowing the lawn, is early autumn or early spring. Do not purchase or order turf until you have completed all soil preparation. Remember, turf does not like being left lying around… Within the 36-hour storage period, the sods are most comfortable in the shade.

2. Preparing the ground

Soil preparation before laying lawn turf is the same as before sowing lawn turf. It includes digging or tilling the soil at least a few months before laying, levelling the area, drainage of very heavy soils, and adding sand to loamy soils and compost to sandy soils. The pH value should also be tested. Lime is incorporated if the soil is too acidic, and peat or bark humus (do not confuse with bark mulch) is added to soils with a pH above 7. Immediately before laying the turf, the ground is levelled and lightly roughened with a rake. This improves the anchoring of the turf roots with the garden soil.

Important: Turf is never laid on top of existing lawn.

3. Choosing the right turf

Before choosing the lawn, measure your future lawn as accurately as possible. Compare offers from the Internet and from your locality. Local manufacturers usually have more favourable delivery terms, and the shorter transport route means that the turf is often fresher. Pay attention to the composition of the grasses in the lawn turf. For play and general-purpose lawns, the turf should consist largely of perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne) and Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis). When buying turf for ornamental purposes or for shady places, other grasses are more suitable.

4. Laying turf

Unless you have purchased the lawn turf with an installation service, you will have to roll it out yourself. You start laying the first row at the longest possible straight edge. You roll out the turf forward, that is, you do not step on the prepared ground surface, but on the already rolled out turf.

Tip: Use footboards (about 25 x 35 cm in size) for best results. This means you will not step on individual pieces of turf and compress them, and at the same time you will improve the ground contact of the previously laid turf sods.

The adjacent rows are connected tightly to the existing ones, so that neither gaps nor overlaps are formed. It is normal that most connection points remain slightly visible. Lightly sprinkling these small joints with washed quartz sand (0.06 – 2 mm grain size) can help to ensure that the connection points of the rolls are better covered with vegetation. Finally, the turf is walked over again with the treads at right angles to the direction of laying in order to bring the turf roots into closer contact with the soil and to improve establishment.

5. Properly maintaining laid turf

Freshly laid turf should not be allowed to dry out until its roots are firmly established in the soil and they themselves can absorb water from the soil. If watered regularly in the first 14 days after laying, the lawn usually grows very quickly. Especially in dry weather, it is recommended that you water the lawn for up to eight weeks after installation, so that the lawn never dries out completely, and your hard work does not go to waste.

Proper care

Those who have decided to lay turf usually have lawsn of high quality with good conditions for it to grow weed-free for a long time, and remain healthy and beautiful with proper care. To ensure you do not regret the expensive purchase after a few years, you should take good care of your lawn now.

Fertilising turf

Fertiliser is the food and growth engine of the lawn. Depending on how nutrient-rich your soil is and whether you mow or mulch, the amount of fertiliser to apply will change. For more tips on fertilising your lawn, check out our special article. In principle, it is recommended that you fertilise the lawn once in spring (for example, in February with compost or in May with nitrogen–based fertiliser such as bone meal) and once in autumn with a potassium–based autumn fertiliser, such as our Plantura Autumn Lawn Feed. Every three years, we recommend that you take a soil test to provide the soil and the lawn with optimal nutrients.

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Watering

Grown turf does not differ in maintenance from ordinary lawn. In the summer it is important that the soil does not dry out completely. Therefore, in the summer the lawn is sprinkled in the morning or evening, provided that it has not rained for several weeks and there is no rain in sight. Always look at the ground and the grasses. Dry soil and yellowish looking, slightly dried grasses are a sign of water shortage. In addition, watering is also necessary after fertilising, if no rain is expected. This is because plants can only absorb nutrients with the help of water.

Mowing or mulching turf

After about 14 days, the lawn can be walked on, and once it reaches a length of about eight cm it can then be mowed to about four to five cm for the first time. By the way, sharp blades are extremely important, especially for the first mowing. The fine blades of grass do not yet have a strong root system and a dull blade can tear out the entire plant. Cannot decide between mowing the lawn or mulching? In temperate latitudes with ordinary soil, mulching is recommended as an ecological mowing option. However, if you have very heavy or sandy soil, your lawn is in the shade, or you live in a very rainy area, then traditional lawn mowing may be a better alternative for you and your lawn.

Scarifying, aerating and sanding rolled turf

Somewhat more involved maintenance procedures include scarifying, aerating and sanding the lawn. Usually in the spring, a special scarifier is used to remove the moss and lawn thatch from the lawn. This is important to allow enough air and water to reach the soil surface and grass roots.

Just like sanding, lawn aeration tends to be done on heavy, poorly permeable soils after dethatching and provides better aeration. Finally you have the lawn sand. It improves the soil structure in the long term and contributes to the sustainability of scarifying and aeration.