I'm more a hard landscaping kind of guy, but my brother in law owns a gardening firm so if you have questions I'm more than happy to bend his ear at the next family BBQ
Ok well I'm trying to level my garden out a bit and have removed and filled a pond etc at the bottom of the garden. Most of the garden is still lawn but I can get hold of a rotavator for this weekend cheap 1- any harm in just tearing through the grass with it? 2- will it then be ok just to flatten/smooth garden out and then topsoil etc or would I need to remove the grass? Its not a show garden I just want it to be as flat as I can for the kids Any other hints and tips for smoothing/filling or levelling etc would be appreciated Although I'm on a bit of a tight budget due to serious overspend on blade lately also limited to what I can physically do due to most of my bones and joints now being Ti Just want to keep it simple if that makes sense
I think you should remove the grass as a decent machine would just rip at it and bounce all over the place . The rotavator is really only at its best on soil that is newly laid or has had a machine to turn it up a touch . If you can imagine the actual machine and the size of the blades ,if they can't get any purchase into the soil all that they would do is ride on top of it and being the shape that it is you would find it near impossible to control . Remove the grass have a good old dig with the spade and tun the clumps over and then you may be able to get the machine onto it .
just order 10 ton of top soil, and spread it around the garden evenly with you stamping down on it as you go.. Costco are doing a great deal on hard wearing grass seed just now - so blast the top soil in seed and rake it in. 4 weeks time, should be ready for its first cut! (i've just levelled a few areas of my garden after getting a patio put in and its looking like it was always there already) forget about tearing it up - the original grass will find its way through the top soil as well just fine (probably not in the deep areas).. Simples
I've just done exactly that and laid 300 Sqm with grass seed. I followed good idvuce, and 3 weeks later I have a lush stripy lawn (been very lucky with the weather though) Go to pitchcare.com.... I'll dig out the seed I bought later but it has a high ryegrass content which is quick to establish. Best advice is sow at rate 50% more(think 75g per Sqm) sow in 2 direction, roller in if you can as seed to soil contact is the key. I then bought germination mats at 4 or 5 quid each. I order 14 of them I think and I was about 2 short, the grass under the mats has done about twice as well as the grass that wasnt. They really hold the moisture and warmth in the soil. Apart from that, good luck, and you should lose a few kg too in this weather
Oh, and the seed was a quality seed and still only £85 for 20 kg. much cheaper to buy that way. I was quoted over £3k to do this area in turf. I reckon I've done it for £250.
Martin, exactly. 1000rr73 above hit the nail on the head.. once you spread out the soil, tramp it in with your feet so its nice and compact and seed and rake it in.. zero digging required.
Didn't realise I could get away with just chucking the soil ontop of the grass, that will make things alot easier and quicker Thanks guys
