Drainage/Ploughing Question for the Experts!

[kormak]

Hi Folks,

Hope I'm in the right place with this question.
Basically I employed a guy to do some site work early last October, to improve drainage.
I stressed to the guy that we were running against a tight schedule and he promised that the whole job'd be done in 4/5 months time, weather permitting.
One excuse has led to another and now I find myself in the middle of March with practically no work done and a shed load of excuses.
Now, I appreciate that one can only do what they can do, however I feel that this chap is simply happy to keep putting this on the long finger.
My main concern now is that; he "topped" the grass in the field 3 weeks ago, to take all the top dead growth off...
The ground is still quite soft and a little wet in places.
I had thought that this would at least get it ready for ploughing straight away or if not it could be sprayed on the same day??
(mowing not an option in this field!)
However he now has advised me that he won't be spraying till the end of March/Early April, that he need fresh green growth to come up so the spray can go right into the root and kill it off, thus getting it ready for Spraying.
Fair enough I said, but after thinking about this, I'm wondering is this really necessary?
Questions

- if the dead growth grass has already been topped leaving the fresh new green coming up, would this not be ready for straight ploughing?
Their appears to be fresh grass growth there already...

- If not and it does require spraying, could this not have been done on the day when it was topped? instead of waiting another 5 weeks!

Sorry if I sound like an abolute moran in this thread, but this isn't really my area of expertise and I have a hunch that this guy is simply happy to conjure up excuse after excuse to bide himself some time.
Thus the reasons for some neutral debate...
I'm rapidly losing patience but am trying to keep an oepn mind.
Advise please??

Thanks,

k

 

[Cormywormy]

All he should have done is set the topper to the lowest setting and cut the grass down as low as he could. Then the same day plough it making sure to bury the grass as he ploughs. Then let dry and if going to sow grass rotavate. simple as.

 

[kormak]

Yeah, that's what I thought...
then I thought maybe he just wants to let it dry out a little before taking a plough to it.
But now he talking about waiting till the end of the month or early April and spraying it, allowing the chemical to take to the root and killing it off within 5/6 weeks.
Looking for like it will be mid May now before he ploughs it!
Is it possible that the field is simply too wet to plough?
The ground is still quite soft and the middle dip in the field is as he put it "like jelly"??

 

[Cormywormy]

well if the field is like he described it " like jelly " he is prob leaving it, so it can dry out. As if he ploughs it when it is wet he will do more harm than good. I would nt worry about letting the chemical work as a lawn i did , was like a lawn of weeds, i just ploughed it burying the rubbish and let it dry for 2 days, then rotavated and seeded the same day.The ground is starting to dry up with this dry windy weather.