Originally Posted by throttleaddict

Hi, I have recently moved into a property that had a paved garden. I am planning to lawn this by spreading seeds but I firstly need some help on preparing the area (17ft x 6ft).

The makeup is as follows from top to bottom:-

Paving stones
Sand/cement
Soil
Slate
Soil

Firstly, I have removed the paving stones and the left over sand/cement mix. There are some stones (pebble sized) that need to be forked and removed, then there is roughly an inch of soil before about 2/3 inches of crushed slate (must have been used as something to bed onto and compacted), then back to soil again.

My question is, do I need to remove all the slate layer and make all back to soil? Or will the lawn grow quite happily on the top soil layer (about an inch thick)?

At a later date, I will probably make a border and maybe a vegetable patch too.