z wrote on 21 Aug 2007 in group
alt.home.lawn.garden:

On Aug 20, 4:40 pm, Steve wrote:
John S G NOSPAMgoodwillATindigoDOTie wrote on 20 Aug 2007 in group
alt.home.lawn.garden:

I have three small lawns, each of which is below the level of the
adjacent paths. They are inherited from the previous owner of the
house and have not sunk in recent years. I want to raise the
levels.

I have read that a new lawn requires to be laid on four inches of
topsoil. Can I put four inches of topsoil on top of the existing
lawns and then sow seed or put on readymade rolls? Or do I have
to dig up the existing grass?

I don't want to re-use the sods of the existing grass as there are
a lot of weeds (creeping buttercup, dandelions, clover, daisies,
speedwell and one that looks like pale green miniature spinach).

If you want, you can apply a short-lived vegetation killer to the
existing sod to kill everything that's there. Be sure not to get the
stuff that says it lasts a year.

4" of soil cover will kill most grass and weeds, but some will come
through. You don't say, but if you're changing species of grass, you
probably don't want the stuff underneath to reappear in a few weeks.
You definitely don't want the weeds to show up again.

You could try the "cover the old sod with newspaper and let it rot"
trick under the new dirt.

I didn't have much luck with that, so I probably did it wrong. I put
down a layer five or six sheets thick, overlapping the seams, then
covered it with mulch. The bermuda grass came back through. Does it need
to be a thicker layer? How thick? Did I miss something?

What do you recommend?

--
Steve B.
New Life Home Improvement