Thank you so much. Will go over there now.

Hi H2D, I just got back from sg buloh and those people there are really helpful and know what I meant when I want to buy soil by the lorry,; not mud or humus just soil. However there is one that's really worth mentioning. .other than you of course, had advised me to get from hardware shop nearby especially those by the road side that have a big area or store . It would be very much cheaper as my house is about 38 km to sg buloh.

hey, glad u went there...

u mean they rekemen u to buy from hw store?

but u need quality soil for grass..

those construction material seller sells mostly sand.. afaik...
and aggregate...

some hw shop sells soil for gardening, but those are packaged....

maybe sand as top layer will be enuf for ur case... im not sure...

This post has been edited by H2D: Oct 6 2013, 03:54 PM

Hi Sorry did not read earlier.

turfing or grass this is what you should do, the easy and cheapest way.

1. You should dig up to 2 feet, if not 2 1/2 feet. Level the ground using a spirit level.

2. Go buy mud (soil), the yellow colour type plentiful and cheap by lorry load fill up the dug areas to 2 feet and 2-3 inches thick (The soil subside with time as there are many air-pockets in between and it will sink). Try level it using long piece of spirit level. Cant find a long one, use a plank/ straight wood 1x2x6 and stick the spirit level on top of the wood. When filling the mud never compact it, just fill and level on the dry. Break the big pieces into smaller with digging tools.

3. Leave it alone let it settle, wait for heavy rain. Real heavy rain for once or two times. The rain not only level out the soil but also even out the compactness of the soil underneath.

3. Then go hardware shop buy sand as topsoil for 4 to 6 inches thick, not just any sand. Buy river sands, the yellow and orange type.

Let me explain this:

1. For plant and grass to grow well you need a layer of mud to hold water all the time rain or shinee.
2. The yellow mud contains little or no wild plant seeds. If you buy humus or old top soil you will get unwanted wild plant spices and out grow your grass and hell lot of work later pulling them up everyday as the wild seeds start to grow.
3. Likewise the sands contain little wild plant seeds. Most grass or plant die when it is submerged in water for too long and the exposed part will rot. The sands will drain away excessive water. That is why you must level the mud and sand ground so as to avoid having pool of water.
4. The mud absorbs water and expands as it is saturated and became impermeable, that is why you must have a layer of sand.
5. The yellow mud and yellow river sands not only void of wild seed but also nutrient, no humus. What needs to do is add fertilizer and overcome this issue.
6. Please note that unlike when you filling the area with mud a bit higher because it will sink, the sand will not compact further or sink but leveling it out when heavy rain.
7. The sand also allows faster spread of the grass and not to worry that the root of the grass have to grow deep to find the water source reaching to the 4-6 inches getting to the mud. A healthy grass can reach it within a day!
8. Please also note that the looser the top layer of "soil" the faster the plant spread and taller it grows. When ground is hard the grass is short and soft it grows taller than usual.

In summary:

Mud, to hold water. Not too thick so as to allow excessive water to move down via capillary action. 2 feet thick will hold lot of water. if too thin if you forgot to water the grass and no rain your grass turn yellow in less than a month.

Sands, allow grass to spread and drain excessive water. Too thin you may have pool of water after heavy rain, too thick your grass grow too tall and you need frequent trimming.

This post has been edited by stevie8: Oct 6 2013, 05:03 PM

Thank you for the write up and advise.I am impressed with your knowledge which is not only limited to this grass turfing method.

Yes this one guy from sg b. advised me to buy from hw store the yellowish colour type soil and sand too.

As Stevie8 said I got to dig deeper and need even more yellowish type and not the packaged ones.

The package one is for pot, flower pot. If there are wild seed, no problem to manage a small pot.

Also when you have big pot, it is good to have a layer of few inches of the yellow soil at the bottom with 2 purposes. When you water the plant water will not just flow right out of the bottom of the pot, instead it flow slowly and this layer will absorb and hold water for a long time, means no need to water everyday or every other day. Once a week will do.

okie liddat...

i've seen ppl use the clay soil for landscaping...
but din noe the construction material seller there got sell...
cos over here at my place they sell oni sand n aggregate...

i've seen nursery flers at sgb, order the clay soil by truck loads
and pack it themselves...

i haven't really seen anyone doing it the way described above. dont get me wrong ... your method is correct ... just that i haven't seen anyone dig 2 feet and refill so much with top soil.
normally, just one layer of top soil (2-3 inches) followed by another layer of sand and then plant the grass. when you plant the grass make you sure water it until it is very very wet, wack it using ... I dont know what you call this tool ... they use it so that the grass sticks to the ground after laying it.

most probably what i normally see is the al-cheapo method ... contractors curi curi so that they can earn more.

This is specially written for Kipkip situation. He needs 2 feet since the original ground is full of contraction waste, broken tiles, stones and and waste cement.

But if your ground is clay or mud then you can skip adding the yellow mud altogether. Let me give you some examples fruit tree planting and growing vegetable.

For fruit tree or any other trees the advice is too dig 4 feet deep and 4x4 feet wide. Why? It is just like a flower pot except it is a big pot. The root of the tree has to go deep and the 4x4x4 "pot" will hold enough water(moisture) for the tree and for the root to grow well there especially when it is young. If you have rocks under the tree and lot of stones the root will not hold and not enough water for bearing fruit. Also the original ground is so hard the root cannot grow deep down and expand bigger. With 4 feet deep the root of tree have reach the water source all year round. When your fruit tree is not bearing fruits it could be you did not dig big enough hole.

Vegetable. Have you been to one of the farms? They make rolls of small hill and the veg grow on top of the hill. They do not plant veg on flat ground. Plants/veg need air in the soil and plenty of soil for root to grow well and the hill just provide both of that plus water will be drained from the hill but at the same time veg need lots of water to grow so the valley and the soil of hills provide enough water needed.

Grass, Sands is needed for draining and for grass to spread. Go to any golf club, at their fairway dig and you find sands.

I have dug more than 2 feet in my lawn and the construction debris seems to be an endless pit. I couldnt be digging until all the debris are cleared so i decided to stopped at 1 ft.and fill with the yellowing soil and 2 inches sand at the top. My phillipine grass doesnt look good. Maybe i am not putting in the correct fertiliser. Any suggestion on the fertilisers Stevie8?

This post has been edited by Squareclogs: Oct 7 2013, 11:18 PM

I am not sure what's went wrong with it. But there are things you have to do for newly planted grass:

1. water daily especially in the morning and evening. Not noon as evaporation will remove most water out of it.

2. Too much fertilizer kills the grass! To know if you use too much or too little, try fertilized a portion of it and see if this part is growing better than the rest. Also, heavy rain washes away the fertilizer! When there are too much fertilizer it will "burn" the grass and turn yellowish. Moist or water the grass first before fertilizer and make sure is well spread and then water a little more so that the fertilizer get into the ground than on top of the grass leaves.

3. Planting. first you wet the ground, flood it real wet but do not disturb the sand, then put the new grass on top press it down. That is the way to do and do not water till next day. This is the way to plant new grass. When water be very careful not to hose it, use shower lightly. Hosing it is a mistake. By doing so you wash away the mud/soil of the grass root down to the sands. When the root hold no soil it get sick and die! That is why you must water it with light shower. By pressing it down to the sand is to make sure there is not too much void or big air pocket and good contact between the newly plant grass root and the sands.

What sud i do with this..keep the pond or demolish and plant some nice grass...i like fish pond but tis is too big for me..the previous owner for sure had engaged a professional to make this..it come with the full filtration system but i haven't tested it whether it work or not...if wan to get rid of it..lot of works as well. BTW it's at least 2 feet deep....

It is a RM20k question, do you know. To construct a pond like this cost RM20K and you want to destroy it?

Why not first get it function and decide later if you want to keep it?

First, empty the pond and filter chambers, clean all the filter one chamber at a time, take photo before you take out the filter so that you know how to arrange it back in its original order.

Put back the filter material, fill water and run the pump, if the pump is still working. Throw in some gold fish and/or cheap koi.

Haha..its by the prev owner and now all the grass is gone and so the water..my workers had cleaned it but i did not take any pic. For the filter...i see only mess inside it ( it locate at the left side of the pic ). I will try to take more pic of it.
The cost is actually did not affect me coz i did not buy the hse that mentioned c/w a fish pond...hahaha..further more i actually prefer a square o rectangular shape one and maybe half the size of this...

It's up to you lor. Not your cup of tea but if you build it costs more than RM15 to RM25k depend on size. the filter chamber is too big occupied space.

Maybe I will do the turfing all over again this time with pearl grass and see how it goes.
Thanks Stevie8

Added mulch to my front lawn. Still need to touch up the edges.
The reason for this mulching is I cant dig 2 feet deep to clear the construction debris because there are some piping and cables beneath my front lawn. The rest of my lawn has been dug out and the topsoil of at least 1 lorry load(3 tonne), is needed.
Stevie8, do I really need 4 -6 inches of sand for the top? I ask the guy I bought the grass from and he said max 2 inches.


Attached File(s)
 lawn.pdf ( 316.76k ) Number of downloads: 78

You can have 2 inches of sands provided the clay/mud/soil is level. Leveling is very important. If the clay ground is not level some area will not have sands at all as rain will wash away the high ground to the low ground. That's is why i recommend 4 to 6 inches for very large piece of land area.

The job of the sands is to level the ground so it look nice and perfect, it also for draining so that you do not have dead grass at the low spots. It is to allow aeration. Carbon dioxide need to be remove from the ground and oxygen get in, basically for air or gas exchange, that will promote the grow of the grass root healthily. If the sands is too shallow you will have spots that the grass cannot grow healthily due to poor root grows. Do not worry too thick of sands layer, the root can grow very fast and deep to the clay soil underneath. See picture here people even resort to getting a digging fork for grass aeration.


The only setback of a thick sand layer is the grass grow taller. Not forgetting some of the sands will get into the clay layer over time with rains and you actually getting less top layer sands over time. Sands allow grass to grow, grass cannot grow well on compact soil, clay. Soil and clay will only get more and more compact over time as you step on it.

One important element is sunshine. Plenty of it your grass will be very healthy. When your grass grow very tall it is becasue it lack sunlight trying to catch more sunlight with longer leave or larger area of leave for making food, not so much because of thick sands layer.

So please level your ground as much as possible if you can only have 2 inches of sands. River sands, not construction sands, construction sands the white color one are not sand but broken stone consist of powder and rocks with sharp edges. The powder will compact the soil even further as it sink during rain and the rocks up to the surfaces blocking the area the grass can grow out of the ground.

From this picture you can see the fork is about 4 to 6 inches, that goes to say why 4 to 6 inches of sands layer is good for aeration.