Stony soil and turf

mercurycooling27253 · September 2023

Hi,

I’m having some turf laid in a couple of weeks. We’re trying to prep the area as best we can, removing any big rocks and roots etc. However we have quite stony soil!
do we need to remove all stones? Or can we rotavate the soil, softly compact it and and a small layer of topsoil?
thanks

Fairygirl · October 2023

I only remove anything bigger than about 10mm @mercurycooling27253

Small stuff is useful for helping the general soil structure, especially if you get a lot of rain, or have heavier soil, as I do. The lawn I created here was done as a large raised bed because of the compacted clay underneath, which had just been paved and gravelled. A fair bit of the gravel was left in situ, and I just forked the site over, and added topsoil and compost, firmed and raked etc, before sowing.
If your site is otherwise reasonably decent [other than the bigger gravel] just rake that off, then add some new soil and rake and firm as is normal for prepping.

It's not always a good idea to rotovate because any persistent weeds can be chopped and become a bigger problem as they'll root again.