"P Piper the second" wrote in message
...

"James Moore" wrote in message
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Hi all

Until I bought my first house, my experence of gardening was to yank out
the nettles from the stairs approaching my upper floor flat.

Well all that has changed now as I have an 80ft plus garden which can
(and does) accommodate many varieties of nettles and weeds.

My problem is, I would like to designate a patch of my garden to provide
a durable lawn for my young sons to play (say ...approx 95%) Now as it
stands, the lawn is in a real state with many patches of weeds
throughout plus it is very uneven with dips and mounds better suited to
4x4 adveture treks.

Sadly, it seems I know as much about gardening as I do women
therefore......I need advice......for the lawn bit at least. Would I be
looking at killing off all my weeds and nettles with chemicals (which
I'm concerned about with young kids around).....should I lift the lot
and buy turf.......what about grass seeds??.........and what about
leveling the garden off so that I have something of a flat surface.

Another alternative could be to tarmac the whole lot and paint parking
bays so my boys could have their own carpark to play in.....this would
leave me to do what I do best......yank out the odd nettle as they
emerge.

I would appreciate any advice given.......or prices for tarmacing!!

Yours sincerely

James Moore
weedkill , rotovate , level and turf

May I also suggest a cheaper option you can try first. If kids are going to
run about on it, kick balls, etc, then just mow it. Most of the weeds will
die, and you arent going to have a pristine lawn anyway. You can fix some
of the hollows by slicing up the turf, sprinkling some soil on it, and then
putting the turf back, and doing the opposite (removing soil) for a bump. If
its really uneven then returfing may be your better option of course.
IF you do returf, you might consider doing it in early October, then if you
can keep the kids off the lawn throughout the winter, it will have quite a
few months to knit together before you let them loose on it in the spring.
Do it now an inevitably theyw ill be running about on it just a few weeks
after its been done. Unless you do it in two halves I suppose, with penalty
of death for going on the new area for some time.....

--
Tumbleweed

Remove my socks before replying (but no email reply necessary to newsgroups)