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Bob F · 02-09-2010, 01:14 AM posted to alt.home.lawn.garden

alanbrook wrote:
;892038 Wrote:
On Jun 22, 4:42*pm, alanbrook
wrote:-
Hello Everyone
Your advice would be greatly appreciated.
First off, I will admit to knowing nothing about gardening.
We bought a house with a badly overgrown back garden. It measures
about
30ft *X 30ft, and was a mixture of rotten sheds and weed filled dying
grass. I *have cleared the sheds, and removed the old turf, which has
left a hard clay base and areas full of sand. We went off on holiday,
and came back to a sea of ivy and horsetail. Roundup and Weedol dont
seem to be eradicating the horsetail.
I want to lay new turf and get a decent garden quickly. Should I lay
a weed membrane, then a layer of topsoil and then the turf on top? Or
can
you recommend something better.
Thanks in advance

Alan

--
alanbrook-

Alan,

Don't be stingy on the topsoil! We were and our clay-concentrated
yard get rock solid very easily.

Keeping the horsetail gone is an ongoing process, much of its food is
stored in the root system, so they keep coming back. You'll probably
be weeding it for years :-(

Good luck,

Karen

Hello Everyone

Thanks for the great advice.
Ive put down a lot of Roundup, and all weeds and most of the horsetail
has died, but it does keep coming back.
I had a couple of gardners quote around £1000 to put down two tonnes
of topsoil and then turf over 30ft by 20ft, so I'm going to do it
myself. I will add 4 tonnes of topsoil to bring the garden up to a
better level, and then turf it.
Do you guys reckon I should rotavate the ground?

Yes. You don't want a hard layer under the grass or its roots will just grow in
the surface topsoil, and need more water to survive. Personally, I would add
more compost and maybe sand and till it into the clay, rather than just covering
the clay with good soil.