A pristine lawn has long been a key part of the European landscaping tradition, partly because it’s soft texture makes it perfect for lying on with a glass of cider on lazy summer evenings. But also because grass is well known for being a hardy plant that can thrive with minimal maintenance, even in the British climate. So it’s ideal for the average homeowner whose looking for a nice garden that doesn’t require too much effort.
And while this has a lot of truth to it, it overlooks a key stage in the development of a healthy lawn from ready-cut turf: the initial laying and caring of the turf. In it’s freshly cut, rolled up state, the turf is much more vulnerable than established grass. This means it requires greater care in the initial weeks and months of installation. The time of year when you lay turf, the prevailing weather and the steps the gardener takes will be key factors in the initial success of the grass.
That being said, when is the best time to lay turf to maximise it’s chances of success, and minimise the workload of the gardener? Well, the short answer is early to mid Autumn, depending on who you ask. Although in theory you can lay a lawn at any time of the year. The key is the weather conditions, so read on if you’d like the more detailed answer.
When turf is first laid, the grass and it’s roots are in a weakened, vulnerable state. Our job as the gardener is to facilitate secondary root growth into the ground as quickly as possible so that the lawn establishes itself and strengthens. A great starting place for this is in mild temperatures, an ideal range being 10°-18°, although some variation around this range is absolutely fine.[1]
This is because at these temperatures the soil is soft and workable, allowing for easy entry of the roots, and the plant germinates and flourishes in this range. As the temperature goes lower, and especially when we get into temperatures where ground frosts are possible, the soil becomes much harder and can even freeze. This will completely prevent access to the roots. Conversely when the temperature is too high the soil begins to bake, which again results in a hardening of the surface. Again making it much more difficult or even impossible for roots to enter.
More exactly, ground frosts become possible at temperatures below 4° so it is preferable to avoid temperatures lower than this. Though we will discuss later the possibility of laying turf in winter conditions.[2] It’s slightly more complicated to give an exact figure for what temperatures are too high for laying turf, as the problem generally arises through the condition of the soil as opposed to the inherent temperature. What you can do is test the soil yourself to see if it would be detrimental to the grass.
What you are looking to avoid is dry soil with little to no moisture, and you can test this in two ways. First you can put pressure onto the soil and see if your fingers sink in easily, or if the soil has gone hard in the heat. And secondly you can rub the soil through your fingers, noting that if it crumbles into lots of tiny, almost dusty pieces it is probably too dry, but if it clumps together a little more and maintains larger particle sizes it’s most likely fine to lay on. You should also take into account the recent weather-if there’s been a 25° drought for a couple of weeks it’s likely that the soil is too dry and hard to lay on.
This moves us on to our next important point-a little bit of rain is great, but too much can be a problem. As we have already noted, it’s important that the soil has enough moisture in it to allow the initial entry of the roots. It also brings the added benefit of providing easily accessible, naturally occurring water for our new lawn which is a vital component of it’s continued healthy growth. Although it’s not the end of the world if it doesn’t rain after you have laid the turf, as we live with the luxury of hosepipes and sprinklers, so you can always water the lawn yourself if and when it needs it.
At the other end of the spectrum, if it rains torrentially the excessive water could become an issue as the ground may become waterlogged. If this happens, the roots can begin to rot due to reduced oxygen availability. This can result in serious damage to your new lawn and even kill the plant in extreme cases.[3] However, given that the lawn has sufficient drainage for normal conditions, this would only be an issue in extreme weather conditions. Our advice would be not to lay your lawn at the start of a strong storm where the weather is predicting extreme rain, but otherwise you should be ok.
Another important factor that we should take into account is the sunlight that the grass will receive, both the quantity and the quality. By the quantity we mean the number of hours of sunlight that the grass will be getting, taking into account that corners of the garden that are sometimes shaded will receive less than other parts. Generally speaking, most species of grass need to get around 4-6 hours of sunlight in order to grow at a healthy rate, so laying the turf during longer days is preferable.[4] Having said this though, the shortest days the UK experiences around the winter solstice still receive around seven hours of sunlight as a minimum, so this shouldn’t be too much of an issue for Brits.[5]
That is, assuming that the quality of the sunlight during those hours is sufficient. What we are referring to here is the fact that lawns are often shaded by shrubbery and trees, which can greatly reduce the amount of light that gets through to parts of the lawn. It’s important to be conscious of these parts of the garden if you believe they might not receive enough sunlight. If this description fits your garden, then some of the measures you can take to reduce the risk of insufficient sunlight include: laying the turf during longer days in the spring and summer, choosing a shade friendly turf, and cutting back or thinning any excessive shrubbery which is creating the shade.
The final aspect we will mention is the amount of use the lawn receives after it’s been laid. As we’ve already spoke about, the turf is initially in a fragile state and needs to be treated with care until it has firmly rooted. Part of this involves avoiding treading on and using the lawn for the first couple of weeks if laid during the summertime. In the winter this figure grows to a couple of months as the turf will take much longer to root. So it’s important that you consider the use your new lawn will be receiving. If you believe it will receive heavy use immediately in the summer, it’s a good idea to lay the turf in spring or even earlier.
It turns out be much easier to first answer when should you not lay turf? In summary, the turf shouldn’t be laid in any extreme temperatures, with temperatures close to or below freezing being too cold, and sustained temperatures above the mid twenties being too hot. It’s also advisable to avoid extended drought conditions, both before the turf is laid and in the weeks afterwards, although as we’ve already noted this can be mitigated by artificial watering. Just as equally you should avoid laying turf when torrential rainfall is expected, especially if your lawn has poor drainage.
From this we can conclude that laying turf during the height of summer, especially if there is a heatwave, should be avoided if possible. It’s also better to avoid laying during the height of winter, particularly if it’s an extra cold or wet winter. This leaves spring and autumn as the preferable times to lay your new garden. Although we want to emphasise again that it is possible at any time of the year, it is only that these seasons have the most favourable conditions that guarantee success with the least amount of extra work.
Does it make any difference, then, whether the lawn is laid in spring or autumn, and in which month it is laid? It turns out that yes, theoretically the best time would be either early or mid Autumn, depending on the local climate in your region of the UK. This would be September for the North and October for the Midlands and South. At this time of year temperatures are mild and rainfall is starting to increase. Therefore the soil is in the ideal state to receive new roots, and the grass will generally receive enough water from rainfall alone.
Autumn also has the added advantage over spring that the garden will not be getting as much use. The lawn then has all of winter and spring to settle before summer comes, bringing with it long awaited garden parties and barbecues. For lawns put down in autumn, the grass has already rooted by the time spring arrives. The plant can then take full advantage of this plentiful season to really grow out and strengthen in time for summer. Grass put down in spring will not be quite as developed. In terms of absolute ideal timing, generally early Autumn is better for colder, wetter parts of the country, i.e. the North. Whereas mid-Autumn is better for regions with milder climates in the midlands and the south.
Although the truth is that the growing unpredictability of the weather and the climate makes it impossible to designate an exact time of the year as having the ideal conditions with complete certainty. The wisest thing to do is to take into account the current conditions irrespective of the month of the year and decide for yourself how suitable it is for laying turf. To conclude then, it is best to lay turf in early to mid Autumn depending on the region with spring as a close second. The caveat being that turf can be laid at any time of year notwithstanding extreme seasonal weather.
Can you lay turf when it’s raining?
Yes you can! As long as the rain isn’t torrential to the point of flooding or water-logging your garden, there is absolutely no issue with laying turf in the rain.
Can you lay turf in summer?
Yes! Although extreme prolonged heat, for example during a heatwave, can be very difficult for new grass to survive in and so should be avoided.
Can you lay turf in winter?
You can indeed lay turf in the winter, and in fact many people take advantage of the free time around Christmas to lay their new lawn. The only caveat is that extreme cold and torrential rain conditions should be avoided, as this can be detrimental to the new grass. Also note that grass will grow very little during the winter, sometimes even remaining dormant. This is nothing to worry about, it only means that you should give your lawn more time before using it, up to two months in particularly cold winters.
When is turf available to buy?
Turf is available to buy all year round, and at Easylawn we have a variety of different species available to fit different gardens needs, available for delivery or to be picked up from one of our stores.
When can you walk on new turf?
It will be at least two weeks before you can safely walk on the new lawn, with this figure growing to up to 2 months when laid in winter time. You should wait until the turf has rooted before walking on it.