Hi, 

We are planning to buy some grass for our lawn, its about 10x4m. The advice we have received is that we need to make the earth plane, then put a layer of sand before the grass goes on top. Does this sound ok? how much sand is optimal?

Really quite simple. Work the ground with a rake or something and buy fertilizer to spread. You can easily buy grass which comes in 12" square. There are the usual wild grass type and a shorter grass from Japan?? Cost about 10-15B per piece. U can buy fertilizer from the same grass vendors. Lay them on the fertilizer & water twice a day. If the grass survice after a week, it will grow.

Really quite simple. Work the ground with a rake or something and buy fertilizer to spread. You can easily buy grass which comes in 12" square. There are the usual wild grass type and a shorter grass from Japan?? Cost about 10-15B per piece. U can buy fertilizer from the same grass vendors. Lay them on the fertilizer & water twice a day. If the grass survice after a week, it will grow.

make sure to water down the fertilizer or it will kill the new grass in no time.

ok, thanks. so sand is only used if the surface is very uneven?

It depends on the parent soil. If it is clay i would cultivate a bit, rake it out level and to remove stones etc and maybe then add some sand to level out any severe depressions. Nowdays we don't add fertilizer when we lay turf unless it is one of the speciality "turf starter" fertilizers. I would lay the turf and it will establish it self without any fertilizer for a couple of weeks and then i would give it a mild hit of either granular fertilizer and water it well in or sperad the fertilizer out when it is raining heavily. Otherwise u can buy a soluble fertilizer or disolve granular fertilizer and water it on with a watering can. The important thing is to encourage root growth rather than leaf growth so not too much nitrogen in the fertilizer is best initially .

A few weeks after laying you can topdress / spread sand ( perferabley sharp river sand)over the turf to even out any hollows and it will help the roots intertwine between joints. A couple of light topdressings is better than than heavy one.

ok, thanks a lot. I will give it a try and report back.