Lawn Upgrade
The reality is that the soil in the hall grounds is a mix of the original clay soil, and fill that has been dumped there over the years. It’s a very thin layer of poor soil at best, and grass finds it very hard to grow in these conditions. It looks lush in the wet season but soon turns brown in the dry weather of winter and spring.
The key to having a resilient lawn is to have a nice layer of well aerated soil that allows the grass roots to penetrate so that it can handle dry conditions and foot traffic.
And guess what? … the biggest ingredient in improving a lawn is labour! … and we have plenty of that!
We hired a lawn aerator and “plugged” the lawn. We then top dressed with manure-improved river sand. When we did this, we had helpers come out of the woodwork and we spread 5 cubic meters in an hour and a half!
The plan is to do this once or twice every year for the next few years until we have a top-class lawn that can handle all of the weddings and wonderful community functions we can throw at it!
Author Wal Mayr