How deep is topsoil

[londoneye]

When I was away in England for a few days OH dug out barn floor and spread out the 'earth' (it also seems to contain a fair amount of broken tiles and stones by the way) over some uneven ground, which I had eventually intended to grass, or keep grass.

This was at start of this year; nothing has grown on this area at all.   He tells me that he only dug down about a foot, so the earth should not have been any deeper than this, but I have no idea how deep top-soil goes?

Do you know if there is anything I could add to the soil now to make it ok for grass, or is it a lost cause now?

[Pierre ZFP]

Normally in a garden you dig 1 spade's depth (or spit) down, or 2 spits if you're really keen/mad and that's all the growing layer.

If nothing at all is growing it would suggest the soil is contaminated (oil? nasty chemicals?)  Do you have any weeds in the patch or  is it 'lunar landscape'?

 

[Meg]

Jeez....just goes to show, they can't be left alone for 5 minutes..........[:D]

[Catalpa]

Daft thought (by me [:P]) but you don't specifically say you put down

grass seed? If you did, was there sufficient rain at the time you did

that? The reason I ask is that if the soil was in the barn for...years?

Decades...? It will be plant (weed or otherwise) free. So perhaps

nothing is growing because at the moment, there are no viable seeds to

germinate. If that is the case... oh what bliss!

[chris pp]

Merely as a point of interest, no more, topsoil can be any depth from 1mm to about 45cm or thereabouts maximum, but I guess that wasn't really the question that you were asking.

"The reason I ask is that if the soil was in the barn for...years? Decades...? It will be plant (weed or otherwise) free."  Oh no it won't, seeds of some species can keep for several hundred years.[:D]

Chris

[Catalpa]

I know, Chris, [:D] but I thought it might slow down the germination!  I'd really like to know if they sowed any grass seed and under what conditions. Drought, torrential rain, etc.

[londoneye]

Ok I confess, daft as it sounds, no I haven't plan ted any grass seed yet.   I was working on the basis that on every other bare scrap of land weeds grow up like crazy things, and because this hasnt happened (lunar landscape scenario), then there was a problem with soil.   Perhaps even the weeds are struggling to get past the broken tiles !

Yes, you are quite right, they can't be left alone for a few minutes.      And I won't even start on the 'while you are away the cat was attacked and half his innards were hanging out; I was just trying to get him into the cat basket to rush him to vets, when a slug fell off' (err the slug would have been the 'innards' then would it!) - something I fancy I would have spotted long before I got to the stage of revving up the car and bundling the cat in ..... I think I have now proved the issue on this one!