Hi All

I'm very new to gardening - keen but inexperienced and looking for
advice. Last year we moved into a cottage in the highlands - it hasn't
really been lived in for any significant time in the past 50 years,
and as you can imagine it is quite wild. Wild is good, don't get me
wrong, but there are areas where it would be nice to tame it a little
and have some grassy areas.

These areas are a little bit uneven so need to be levelled. I'm happy
to hire a mini excavator or get someone in to level these areas, but I
am unsure what to do next. In their current state these areas have
developed into rank grassland - lots of dead material and long grasses
tgether with other plants like pignut.

Can ayone advise? Should I be laying turf or taking the surface layer
off and seeding, or am I missing anything else.

Thanks for your help in advance.

Ben

On 6/11/07 08:33, in article
, "Ben R"
wrote:

Hi All

I'm very new to gardening - keen but inexperienced and looking for
advice. Last year we moved into a cottage in the highlands - it hasn't
really been lived in for any significant time in the past 50 years,
and as you can imagine it is quite wild. Wild is good, don't get me
wrong, but there are areas where it would be nice to tame it a little
and have some grassy areas.

These areas are a little bit uneven so need to be levelled. I'm happy
to hire a mini excavator or get someone in to level these areas, but I
am unsure what to do next. In their current state these areas have
developed into rank grassland - lots of dead material and long grasses
tgether with other plants like pignut.

Can ayone advise? Should I be laying turf or taking the surface layer
off and seeding, or am I missing anything else.

Thanks for your help in advance.

Ben


Turfing is easier and quicker, though you can't walk on it for a few weeks
and must keep it watered in dry spells, as you would have to if you seed it.
In either case, you want to level the lawn out, removing all stones etc.
But in the first instance, would it be possible for cut the grass you've
got, scarify it to get all the dead bits and moss etc. out and then feed it
to bring it back to some semblance of a lawn in the spring? All that said,
if it's too big an area or if it really is beyond redemption, personally I'd
go for the turfing option.

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove weeds from address)
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'

Thanks Sacha

In theory I could cut, scarify etc, but I do still need to make it
level, so perhaps that would be out of the question.

Have you any idea how much I should expect to pay for turf say per
square metre?

Cheers

Ben

On 6/11/07 13:19, in article
, "Ben R"
wrote:

Thanks Sacha

In theory I could cut, scarify etc, but I do still need to make it
level, so perhaps that would be out of the question.

If levelling really is an issue - and I tore a ligament walking on my old
lawn because it wasn't! - then it probably is easier to start from scratch,
IMO and IME.

Have you any idea how much I should expect to pay for turf say per
square metre?


No, I'm sorry but I've no idea what it costs now and it probably varies from
area to area. I'd ask around a few neighbours and local nurseries for
recommendations, not just for the best price but the best quality.

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove weeds from address)
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'

Have you any idea how much I should expect to pay for turf say per
square metre?


On Ebay £1.20 per square yard.

Mike

"Muddymike" wrote in message
news
Have you any idea how much I should expect to pay for turf say per
square metre?


On Ebay £1.20 per square yard.

Mike



We built a house earlier in the year. The back lawn is quite large and we
partly turfed and partly seeded it (long story).

The site was leveled, rotavated and large stones removed by hand. Small
stones were scrapped off with a grading blade on a mini tractor. Then
rotavated again and more stones removed. Some areas did that three times.

Then turf was laid, The turf had to be watered constantly during the daytime
for a two week really dry spell. Due to size of the area I had to run two
hoses at once and move them every 45mins. One overcast and windy afternoon I
had to go out and there was nobody to move the sprinklers so I turned them
off. Within three hours the bits of turf that were due to be watered had
started to dry and shrink. There were 2" gaps in some places when I came
back. Fortunately I was able to close up the gap and get the water going
again. Saved it. After two weeks the turf had pulled itself down and after
four-five weeks it was ok to let the kids on it. A couple of cuts and it
looked fantastic - still does.

The areas we seeded were prepared the same way but took ages for the seed to
come up. Then it came up in different colour patches. Some bits grew really
fast but I couldn't cut them because the bare soil has a lot of clay and I
would have had a sticky mess. It took about 6 months before the seeded bit
was anything like as dense as the turf. There are still slightly different
coloured patches even though the seed used was the same seed used to grow
the turf.

Be prepared for a big water bill. Mine was about £200 up! When we built the
house we put a 4700 gal rainwater collection tank underground. It was about
2/3rd full when the turf was laid but we emptied that in a single afternoon
watering the new turf using three sprinklers. Had to switch to using mains
water. Thank goodness there wasn't a hose pipe ban!

If I was doing it again I'd use turf all over and probably add sand or
something to our slighty clay soil.

Hi
If you've got rough ground that isn't level, and you're in a rural area, then see a local agricultural supplier who will hire you a compact tractor with a stone burier. Make sure that you have confidence in the hirer to get the spec right, a 1.7m wide stone burier requires about 40hp at least at the tractor.

A stone burier sort of "rotovates" the ground, putting the big stones at the bottom then the loose soil on top. It also has a big wide roller, which when combined with the weight of the tractor re-compacts and rolls the earth flat. You'll still have 3/4" stones on the surface, but either pick them out or roll them in.

Forget turf. Use seed. If you've done the above, you'll have good soil down to 8", and a lawn grown from seed is easy, much much cheaper, and the roots better grounded in the soil. But use good seed - not cheap stuff - you pay for what you get.

Finally, the above is only really viable for lawns above 0.5 acres, due to the size of the equipment. Tractors are great in straight lines, but if it's all turns in a short space they're no good. Try a pedestrial powered rotovator type tool instead...

Hope this helps.

Hi
We are currently the UK's leading provider for quality turf. We average £1.80 per square metre depending on size. We not only just sell turf, also gravels, soils and seeds.

You can visit our website for quotations and information about caring for your lawn at www.onlineturf.co.uk

We moved into a similiar place in the Highlands which had never been cultivated. Top soil was boulders and aggregate which compacts into a clayey aggregate mix, known around here as concrete clay. I've used a 1.5 tonne digger on this, normally sufficient for gardens, and it struggled! After grading the land to shape we regularly cut the weeds with a high deck mulching mower, to form a topsoil. After about two years we now have a thick lush grassy lawn.
Please don't waste your money on turf or seed. You will be surprised at the transformation if you just cut the 'lawn' regularly with a mulcher (which leaves the grass cutting on the lawn. This regular cutting will encourage any grass roots to spread and weaken any broadleaved weeds. Keep at it you will get there.