New Turf Help

GeorgeM

Hello,
I am new to gardening and do not have much of a clue! 

I recently got a contractor to put turf in our garden. It was levelled before the turf went down. This was 6 days ago and looked fine. 

Gradually it has started to change colour and massive patches are now tan in colour and look a bit dead. 

I have watered it every day and have a sprinkler so not sure if i’m missing something. 

Can anyone assist with the solution?

JennyJ

How long are you leaving the sprinkler on each section for? If you've had the kind of dry and windy weather that we've had, it probably needs about an hour. The water needs to get right through the turf and into the soil below. I'm assuming the contractor tamped it down properly to get good contact between the roots and the soil.

GeorgeM

Thank you for replying. 

The sprinkler is left on for twenty minutes per section. That’s after I’ve watered the entire turf for around 30 mins. We’ve had the same weather, warm and dry with no rain unfortunately!

I’m not too sure so I can only assume so too unless there’s a way to check. The one part I lifted to see underneath was done easily if that makes a difference. 

It’s very patchy so not sure if it’s dead or will come back to life

Wilderbeast

Turf needs water, water and more water. Best done on an evening to reduce evaporation.

GeorgeM

Thank you. 

I’m hoping it rains soon but I don’t think it’s forecasted. 

Should I be worried about overwatering at all? 

Wilderbeast

You'll have a job over watering that, it's going brown so needs loads of water and pretty regular too

AnniD

I think you'll be fine watering as suggested above  
It's surprising just how much water a newly laid lawn requires, and there are certain areas of the UK that haven't had any rain of note for quite a while. The fact that you can still lift the turf easily shows that it hasn't started to "take" yet.
Water it as advised and see what happens, and let us know. If for any reason it still looks dreadful after a week or so, it may require a plan B.

Dovefromabove

It’s not just the turf that needs watering … the water needs to penetrate through the turf and soak the soil below the turf … only then will the roots grow down from the turf into the soil and begin to establish as a lawn. 😊 

amancalledgeorge

Good luck with it...but how bizarre to have the whole area turfed. Those fence panels will be getting soaked every single day to water the turf. Presumably will be cutting in some beds into it at a later stage? 

JennyJ

I agree, give it more water, even if it rains a bit. Anything short of a solid downpour for an hour or more isn't going to be enough. When you lift a bit of the turf, is the soil underneath wet? it should be after you've watered.

Looking again at the picture, it does seem to be individual turves that are worst affected and there's one good green one in between brown ones, so I'm wondering if some of them got too dry between lifting and laying. Maybe worth a query to the contractor - tell them you've followed their instructions but some of the turves have gone brown.

Fairygirl

Unless you have hours of steady rain, you need to water very thoroughly and for long enough. Hours not minutes.
20 mins for one section doesn't even touch it - literally. 

It's very hard to overwater grass, unless it's on the wrong type of ground - ie soggy, which won't suit it anyway. It wouldn't thrive here if that was the case.