Specifications, Inspirational Ideas & DIY Guides
Overview
Rootzone is the material I would put under a new lawn where the ground has to drain and take a beating, and it is the one people often mix up with topsoil. It is a 70/30 blend, roughly seven parts sports sand to three parts soil, screened to 5mm. The sand is a medium grade at around 0.25 to 0.50mm. Out of the bag it looks like damp buff sand with a darker soil fraction through it, and it stays workable in weather that turns a heavy topsoil to putty. It earns its money on drainage and wear, not on fertility or bulk.
Why Professionals & Homeowners Choose Rootzone
The classic version of the problem this solves goes like this: a lawn goes down on whatever the builders left behind, it knits beautifully through a mild autumn, and by February half of it is standing water and the other half is moss.
- Drainage is the headline. Blends at this grading carry a drainage rate of around 60mm an hour, which is more than British weather is likely to throw at it.
- It takes winter traffic better than a loam topsoil, but it is not compaction proof. That is what the annual aeration and top dressing further down are for.
- Screening to 5mm gives a genuinely level bed.
- It is peat free, non-manure based and aminopyralid free. Aminopyralid is a herbicide that survives composting and distorts new growth in anything grown on contaminated soil.
- The catch is water retention. Seventy per cent sand holds far less moisture than a loam, so a lawn on rootzone needs watering more often through its first summer.
- The blend runs pH 7.0 to 8.0, at the top of the 6.5 to 7.0 band turf grasses do best in. Above pH 7 manganese, boron and phosphorus get harder for grass to take up, so plan on feeding.
Rootzone Applications
Rootzone suits lawn grasses grown for wear and for fine finish, not the ones you would put in a border. Perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne) is the wear species on pitches and family lawns and establishes quickly in a free-draining bed. Strong creeping red fescue (Festuca rubra ssp. rubra) and browntop bent (Agrostis capillaris) are the fine grasses behind bowling greens and golf tees, and both do better on a sandy rootzone than on a rich one. It is not a border soil, so I would keep it away from beds, shrubs, raised vegetable beds and tree pits, all of which need more water and more nutrients than this holds. I would not blend it into existing topsoil either. You get a bed that drains unevenly and knits in patches. Topsoil goes down as the base, rootzone goes on top.
- Building a new lawn or a pitch from scratch, at 100 to 150mm over a loosened sub-grade
- Laying turf over prepared topsoil, as a clean 25mm finishing layer the roots go straight into
- Filling hollows and levelling dips before over-seeding, up to about 50mm in one pass
- Top dressing after scarification or hollow tining, so it drops into the holes rather than sitting on the sward
- Over-seeding thin or worn patches, working the seed into the dressing rather than scattering it on top
DIY Guides & Inspirational Ideas
How I identify garden soils that need improving or removing.
If your lawn turns into paddling pool every time it rains, I have a simple fix.
Everything you need to know before you dig, from trench sizes to the two mistakes that kill most drains.
Rootzone Maintenance
A lawn built on rootzone needs feeding to a schedule rather than when it starts to look hungry, because a sand-dominant bed does not hold nutrients the way a loam does. I would feed three times a year, in spring, early summer and autumn, and use a feed carrying trace elements rather than straight nitrogen.
Top dress once a year, in autumn after scarifying or hollow tining, at 2 to 3kg per square metre. The rule that keeps you out of trouble is to leave roughly three quarters of the grass leaf showing once you have brushed it in. Dusted, not buried. Let the surface dry slightly first, then work the dressing into the aeration holes with the back of a rake or a stiff broom.
Purchasing Tips
Rootzone is sold here in a builders bag holding approximately 700 litres, or 0.7 cubic metres. For any job, multiply the area in square metres by the depth in metres, then divide by 0.7 to get the bags.
Starting on subsoil or on ground the builders left, put landscaping topsoil down first to build the depth, then finish with rootzone. Buying online you cannot get a handful of it before you commit, so read the screen size and the blend ratio in the description rather than going by the photograph. Anything sold as “lawn soil” with no ratio given is usually a screened topsoil, not a rootzone.
If you would rather talk your rootzone order through with a person, ring Outdoor Aggregates on 0330 043 7585. The office is open 7am to 7pm, seven days a week.
Rootzone coverage per 700 litre builders bag
| Job | Depth | Coverage per bag |
|---|
| New lawn or pitch | 100 to 150mm | 4.5 to 7m² |
| Layer under turf | 25mm | 28m² |
| Filling hollows | up to 50mm | 14m² |
| Top dressing | 2 to 5mm | 140m² at 5mm |
Rootzone FAQs
What is the difference between rootzone and topsoil?
Rootzone is a sand-dominant blend built for drainage and wear at roughly 70% sand to 30% soil, while topsoil is a general growing medium carrying far more clay, silt and organic matter. Use topsoil to build up depth and grow plants and rootzone as the layer the grass roots actually sit in.
What is the difference between Rootzone and Divot Mix?
Rootzone is the 70/30 blend for building a lawn or a pitch from scratch, and Divot Mix is the finer 50/50 blend for repairs and dressing. The extra organic matter in Divot Mix holds moisture around germinating seed, and the extra sand in Rootzone keeps a whole surface draining under foot traffic.
How deep should rootzone be for a new lawn?
Rootzone for a new lawn goes down at 100 to 150mm over a loosened sub-grade, which is the depth grass roots will genuinely use. Laying turf over existing prepared topsoil, a clean 25mm finishing layer is enough.
Can rootzone fix a waterlogged lawn?
Rootzone will not fix a waterlogged lawn on level ground, because the water has nowhere to go once it has passed through. Where the ground falls away somewhere, put in a French drain or a soakaway first, and rootzone then keeps the surface from puddling.
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