Growing grass on top of geotech fabric?

[danacat]

Problem: Low portion of one of my pastures never drains. It’s a boggy mud hole that contiunues to grow – fence posts are rotting and wobbly, horses are digging and rolling making it all the worse – rocks are surfacing – not safe, not a pretty picture. Pretty soon I’ll have a wallow for a herd of hippos.

My contractor wants to make a big swale with a ditch that will capture water – ditch will take water out of pasture to pond.

After swale/ditch is dug he wants to put fabric down on the bare dirt – then a thick layer of 2" stone – then another layer of fabric over top of stone – then a thick layer of topsil – then seed with pasture mix. Horses will be fenced off from area until next year so grass can get established.

Sounds good – but I’ve never heard of growing grass on top of fabric. I’ve only put stone dust on top of fabric as a barrier to create my ‘mud free’ sacrifice paddocks.

Anyone tried this? Will it work? Thoughts?

[2DogsFarm]

Sigh… shallow-rooted weeds have had no problem taking hold on top of my geotex topped by 6" of gravel.
It was put down 6yrs ago & stayed pristine for probably the 1st 3.
It still does a bangup job of giving me a mudfree area in all weather.
I imagine grass will be fine if there’s enough room for roots.

[TwoTrickPony]

Grass grows on top of my grass barrier fabric all of the time, even with just a bare bit of soil.

[Scarlet_Gilia]

Ditto. I have a path that has weed barrier covered by mulch. The mulch has decomposed over the years into nice soil, and the weeds and grass are quite happy growing there now.

[OneTwoMany]

Grass and weeds will happily live in the conditions you describe.

[PeteyPie]

@danacat

Problem: Low portion of one of my pastures never drains. It’s a boggy mud hole that contiunues to grow – fence posts are rotting and wobbly, horses are digging and rolling making it all the worse – rocks are surfacing – not safe, not a pretty picture. Pretty soon I’ll have a wallow for a herd of hippos.

My contractor wants to make a big swale with a ditch that will capture water – ditch will take water out of pasture to pond.

After swale/ditch is dug he wants to put fabric down on the bare dirt – then a thick layer of 2" stone – then another layer of fabric over top of stone – then a thick layer of topsil – then seed with pasture mix. Horses will be fenced off from area until next year so grass can get established.

Sounds good – but I’ve never heard of growing grass on top of fabric. I’ve only put stone dust on top of fabric as a barrier to create my ‘mud free’ sacrifice paddocks.

Anyone tried this? Will it work? Thoughts?

What’s the problem? The grass isn’t growing on the textile, it’s growing on the “thick layer” of topsoil. Grass loves a thick layer of topsoil.

[goodhors]

Grass will grow fine on covered fabric. How thick of layer is planned for the topsoil? The thicker the better. Plan to not let horses over graze that field to carry soil off in hooves or wash soil away without foliage protection of grass cover.

[danacat]

@goodhors

How thick of layer is planned for the topsoil? The thicker the better. .

I’m thinking of using some of the dirt that’s dug out of the ditch as a 3" base – will roll and pack this to lock it in place, then will harrow in 2 inches of purchased/screened ‘good’ topsoil – roll and pack – then add another 2 inches of the good topsoil on top for the grass seed. So approx. 7 inches of dirt altogeher.

Great to hear that everyone has had success with grass over fabric! I just had visions of the grass ‘growing’ then hitting the fabric and dying off over time because the roots have nowhere to go. But with enough dirt this apparently won’t be the case.

Horses won’t be grazing this area until next summer. Blocked off until grass is really established and mowed several times.

[clanter]

@danacat

Great to hear that everyone has had success with grass over fabric! times.

I have found grass will grow everywhere except where you want it to grow so would put a sign in that ditch saying no grass allowed

[danacat]

@clanter

I have found grass will grow everywhere except where you want it to grow so would put a sign in that ditch saying no grass allowed

So true! LOL

[sk_pacer]

Grass over fabric is done all the time - most sod is laid over fabric and in places with bad drainage or steepish slopes, fabric, then gravel and/or weeping tile is placed then dirt then seed.