Sowing a lawn - Help needed!!

[Ben Emms]

Hi all. I need some help. I'm trying to sow part of my lawn that is bare and have put some top soil down on it but having spent hours de-clumping it there are now hundreds or even thousands of small marble sized balls of top soil all over it from the left overs of breaking down the clumps. The whole point of doing this other than obviously that top soil is needed anyway, was to cover up lots of small stones that were underneath it, but now I have the equivalent of those stones only as hard pieces of clumped top soil. What I want to know is, do I need to get rid of all these small balls of top soil or is it OK to sow the seed on it anyway? Also I am half contemplating turfing it as I'm not sure I want to wait for the grass to grow from seed (I have a young family and could do with the lawn for the summer), but in this case does the same still apply ie. would i have to get rid of the balls first? Any thoughts gratefully appreciated. Thanks.

[songbird]

dirt clods will break down eventually. rolling the area will compress them into the soil, but it's not needed and soil compaction won't help grass grow.

newly seeded grass will not be able to handle a large amount of traffic until after it is well established.

mow it regularly (set on fairly high setting) once it sprouts and keep it watered this summer if it gets too dry.

songbird

[thomaspoul]

it could be little tough for you anyway.......good luck.