"Michael Brewer" wrote in message
om...
We've recently moved into a new house, and wish to make a few minor
alterations in the (smallish) garden, specifically to grass over part
of a flower bed surrounding the patio (our kids seem not to have the
ability to step over the bed to get to the lawn) and to remove a
dangerously leaning tree in the middle of the lawn. The latter we
have already done but it has left a crater in the lawn to fill; the
former will require raising/levelling of the soil to match the
surrounding lawn.

With the house we also inherited a reasonably-sized composter, full of
compost. I haven't seen what it's like, but this leads to my
question, which is:

Can you use compost (of the variable homemade variety) as a base for
lawns? I'd rather put the compost to use (we don't have a huge plot
to make a great deal of use with it, and a second composter is already
filling up), and avoid the cost of buying in loads of topsoil. On the
other hand, I gather that topsoil, from the right supplier (i.e. not
B&Q etc) is not overly expensive, so I would rather use that (or a
mixture of topsoil/compost?) if it will provide a better result.

Many thanks in advance,

Mike

Use topsoil which you can acquire from other parts of the garden
(flowerbeds) which should ensure an even match on the lawn filled in.
If you then have a deficit of soil use your compost and a bit of purchased
soil to fill in the flowerbeds