Artificial lawn and subsequent soil issues

The Bald Gardener

I have another (probably daft) question to ask.

I inherited a plot with artificial grass (no idea how long it had been down), my concern is that this will have killed off the soil below and make it difficult, if not nigh on impossible, to start off a new lawn from seed in August/September. Would this be the case?

Unfortunately I've no access to farmyard manure or loads of well rotted good quality compost so I was thinking I could buy a granular fertiliser, probably this one  https://www.homehardwaredirect.co.uk/productinfo?product=Organic-6X-100-Natural-Fertilizer15kg&ProductID=17014   dig it in and repeat a few times over the next few months before finishing off with a little top soil. I was also going to buy some earthworms from a fishing tackle shop and dig them in around the (small 16 M2) plot as i did not notice any when turning over the soil after lifting the artificial grass.

I don't want to turf; I could if I absolutely had to, but I really want to have the satisfaction of growing it from seed and I've challenged myself to do my garden properly but as cheaply as possible. Besides, I reckon if the soil has 'gone' then even turf would have issues knitting in.

Again, thank you in advance for any advice/information you can provide, it is very much appreciated. 

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The Bald Gardener

@Freddies Dad  I hope that is the case, but I had been reading that not all AG is permeable, thus depriving the soil of rainwater and oxygen.  Lord only knows if that is actually true, but it seems reasonable enough to me. 

I've got some chicken poo pellets and also some top soil I was going to use for the final levelling, I might just go ahead and dig that in a little now and get more top soil come August/September for the final preparation.

It could well be a case of suck it and see.   

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Pete.8

I agree with FD, I reckon the soil underneath will be fine. Dig a spadeful up and see what's in there. If it looks and smells ok, then it's ok.
If it were me, I'd rotavate first, add topsoil if needed and level then sow/lay turf in the usual way.
I find that a dressing of bonemeal in autumn (for root growth), and pelleted chicken manure (for top growth) in the spring and summer works wonders.

Skandi

Pull up the grass and rotovate/dig it over, leave it uncovered for a month or so, I pulled off some landscape fabric here and tried to plant, but the soil was so lifeless and compacted it failed horribly.

BenDover

Next door neighbour laid down artificial grass last year.  He also removed every other living thing from his garden.  Now it's just a very bare patio and plastic "grass".  And he's banned his children from playing on it.  The mind boggles with some people.

Wayside

I've heard that some artificial grass prep, is just as laborious as laying a patio, with the underlying ground works.  But considering you can get a lawn going on about a foot of topsoil on chalk, I wouldn't have thought it would be impossible to reverse.  The lawn will feed itself in time.

madpenguin

Don't bother buying in earthworms,if the soil is right they will move in naturally.

Pete.8

madpenguin said:

Don't bother buying in earthworms,if the soil is right they will move in naturally.

So true - I had quite a big area filled with fine topsoil up to 2ft in depth in places. The topsoil was silt from the beet factory, so there was no life in it at all. A couple of months later when I started to dig in manure I was amazed at the number of worms 

Blue Onion

Feed the soil.. they will come.