TeaBag wrote:
Hello all. We have recently had a house built and so the "garden" is
just soil and boulders at the moment. We're planning on getting a lawn
down at the end of the summer. We're complete garden newbies as we've
always lived in flats (apart from renting a house previously where we
did mow the lawn). Now we have the chance to start a lawn from scratch
and so would like some advice from people who know, like yourselves.
Some information:

Location - 30 miles west of Aberdeen
Soil - quite a clay soil with lots of fist sized stones
Area - about 600 sq. metres (although we'll only be laying a lawn on
about 200 sq. m of it to start with)

I have a plan but please advise on how good/bad you may think it is:

Step 1:

Spray all weeds/ground with glyphosate

Spraying the ground wastes spray. It has to get on the leaves to work.


Step 2:

Spray all weeds/ground with glyphosate again two weeks later

Ditto

Step 3:

Once all weeds are dead, rotorvate ground (to make levelling easier)

Step 4:

Level and de-stone soil (and possibly add top-soil if needed)

Step 5 (if time permits):

Spray any new emerging weeds with glyphosate

Step 6:

Remove/dig in dead weeds

Step 7:

Trample/firm soil

Step 8:

Lay turf

Are there any flaws or perhaps better ways to establish a new lawn?
Also, I was looking at getting a wide-toothed rake such as the
Chelwood 18E or 18K for raking up the stones as these rakes have a
4cm gap between the teeth. Would you recommend any other or would one
of these do the job well?

A large landscapers rake helps a lot in getting it level. (3-4 feet wide - you
can rent one) A roller also helps - it makes the high/low spots really obvious.
Getting the soil level and smooth is really important for a smooth lawn.