Hi!

I'm new to this newsgroup, so I apologise if 2 questions at once is not
allowed!

First question I have is: How do you clear soil of gravel??? The previous
owners of our house used gravel in a couple of garden paths and it has
traveled into the soil everywhere! It didn't matter much for them as they
had garden beds everywhere (they had grown up children), but as we have a
toddler & baby, we are wanting to put in gravel free grass to be more "kid"
friendly! We don't really have money to spend on our garden, so any work to
be done would have to be done without the aid of any big equipment! Is it
just a matter of digging out the current soil and replacing it with new, or
is there another way??

Second question is: I'm designing our backyard to be sort of a kids
playground (but an attractive one), I'm including a bike path around the
edge, a swing set area, and room for a trampoline and a cubby house for when
the kids are a bit older (and we have more money - hehe)! Does anyone have
any hints on putting together this sort of garden! I'm wanting it to be a
kids wonderland rather than just a play area (and I would like it to be
pretty for us to entertain out there as well!) Not asking much for my
backyard am I (hehe).

Thanks for any help!
Tania

"Tania Zolkos" wrote in message
u...
Hi!

I'm new to this newsgroup, so I apologise if 2 questions at once is not
allowed!

First question I have is: How do you clear soil of gravel??? The previous
owners of our house used gravel in a couple of garden paths and it has
traveled into the soil everywhere! It didn't matter much for them as they
had garden beds everywhere (they had grown up children), but as we have a
toddler & baby, we are wanting to put in gravel free grass to be more
"kid"
friendly! We don't really have money to spend on our garden, so any work
to
be done would have to be done without the aid of any big equipment! Is it
just a matter of digging out the current soil and replacing it with new,
or
is there another way??




If you are grassing the area just rake ou the worst of it then use a
mixture of building sand and cheap growbag compost to level and cover the
area to at least 25 mm deep and sow the grass seed in with the mix ---
if you are doing this start as soon as the current heat wave start to cool
to give the grass time to get a hold before the end of the growing season.

For and areas of exposed soil you want to keep unless you want to dry and
sieve the the soil, again rake out the lumps, cover with a layer of sand
and peat based gow bag mix then cover with 75 mm of chipped micro bark this
will give a nice safe soft surface

Does anyone have
any hints on putting together this sort of garden! I'm wanting it to be a
kids wonderland rather than just a play area (and I would like it to be
pretty for us to entertain out there as well!) Not asking much for my
backyard am I (hehe).

I'm afraid we were much less imaginative when designing our kids play area,
but one thing we have done that has been a big success is to plant some
strawberries in pots. I don't think they are the world's best strawberries,
but the children love seeing them grow and picking them when they are ripe
and they are pretty too! I have also grow a tumbler tomato plant for the
first time and they are amazed by that.

Saffy.