I went through that a few years back when we had a new septic system
installed (I have some before and after photos on one of my gardening
webpages) A large lawn area and some of my gardens were going to be
demolished. I walked the area with the fellow doing the work and the day
before the job was to begin, I dug up all the flowers, shrubs and trees
I wanted to save. Needless to say, he excavated beyond the marked areas
and I had been running around his front end loader, digging up more
plants as fast as I could...

And where the lawn had been, a zillion big and small rocks were
unearthed. I spent about a week cleaning the rocks out and used bright
yellow spray paint to mark off a long curving border for the new garden
areas and then, for INSTANT GRATIFICATION, I had a sod lawn put down.
Within two hours I had a gorgeous lawn to play croquet on. I would
advise you to get a few quotes to have a sod lawn put in or do it
yourself. Those rolls of grass are kind of heavy though!

Also, I want to mention the benefit of "work poop". You can get this in
liquid form in bottles that attach to your garden hose and the stuff
really gives you a lush, emerald green lawn!!

Denise

Tour my gardens:

http://web1.in4web.com/mtcdrc