carps writes

Hi - hope someone can help!

I'm not much of a gardener (or haven't been in the past due to my
frankly tiny garden) but I'm just about to move into a bigger house and
the lawn is a bit of a mess. I've got a young son and I'd like him to
enjoy the garden in future so I'm thinking about laying a new lawn.

So... am I best off laying my lawn myself? I've seen a company (Rolawn)
who sell turf online (http://www.rolawndirect.co.uk/) that one of my
more gardening-centric friends tells me is pretty good. There's an
online turf-laying guide there which makes it all look pretty easy, but
am I letting myself in for loads of problems or should I just get a
professional landscaper in (given my track record of killing things!)

If you have a young son, his idea of enjoying the garden is almost
certain to include football or some other equally exciting ways to
convert grass into mud. If you re-lay the lawn, you are going to want
to cherish it, and find it really hard when he and a group of his
friends want to charge around it on a sunny autumn day after a good
day's rain.

I would consider spending a season simply mowing it regularly and see
what improvement you effect with that. If you're not happy, you can
always re-turf it later.
--
Kay