I am a complete novice gardener and have recently had a patio laid. Our
garden is on a hill and at the moment is about 8 inches lower than the patio
increasing to 15 inches at the farthest point form the patio
The lawn area is only about 25 foot deep. I want to make it level with the
patio. Presumably the gap is too high to fill with just top soil. Should I
lay something on the existing grass before adding new topsoil?
If so what?
Any help greatly appreciated.
Thanks

You are obviosly going to do lots of work. So why not strip the turf, roll or stack it, even the ground up and relay?

SteveO wrote:
:: I am a complete novice gardener and have recently had a patio
:: laid. Our garden is on a hill and at the moment is about 8 inches
:: lower than the patio increasing to 15 inches at the farthest point
:: form the patio
:: The lawn area is only about 25 foot deep. I want to make it level
:: with the patio. Presumably the gap is too high to fill with just
:: top soil. Should I lay something on the existing grass before
:: adding new topsoil?
:: If so what?

How is the added soil/whatever going to stay in place? - the lie of the land
is now sloping away from your patio, what will retain the extra 15 inches at
the far end and the sides?
When you say 25ft deep, do you mean 25ft long? - if so, what is the
width?....I just did a quick calculation and estimated it to be approx 18ft
wide : 25 X 18 = 450sq ft, but the average depth is going to be a foot, so
it requires 450 cu ft, this equates to well over 12 tonnes, whichever
material you choose to fill in with....obviously if it's wider than 18ft,
you can recalculate.


--
If God had intended us to drink beer, He would have given us stomachs.

The turf as it is, isnt very good. What i really need to know is what to
fill the void with, is there something i should use under the topsoil, that
also may be cheaper.



"JohnOGroats" wrote in message
...

SteveO Wrote:
I am a complete novice gardener and have recently had a patio laid. Our
garden is on a hill and at the moment is about 8 inches lower than the
patio
increasing to 15 inches at the farthest point form the patio
The lawn area is only about 25 foot deep. I want to make it level with
the
patio. Presumably the gap is too high to fill with just top soil.
Should I
lay something on the existing grass before adding new topsoil?
If so what?
Any help greatly appreciated.
Thanks


You are obviosly going to do lots of work. So why not strip the turf,
roll or stack it, even the ground up and relay?


--
JohnOGroats

SteveO wrote:
The turf as it is, isnt very good. What i really need to know is
what
to fill the void with, is there something i should use under the
topsoil, that also may be cheaper.
[...]

Hmm. You could lay six inches of crusher run aggregate -- in size
about four inches down -- and then import your new topsoil onto that,
which would improve drainage and be cheaper than topsoil all the way.
But I'm not sure how much money that would save when the separate
costs of transport came in: find out the delivered cost of each, and
calculate from there.

But I know I'd leave it as it is, since I think you're very lucky to
have a garden on more than one level. Have you considered the fences
or hedges? If you don't build a strong low wall, they're going to
have their bottom eight to fifteen inches submerged in soil. This
will kill some or all of any hedge, rot or break a wooden fence, and
give you a new view into next-door's garden -- you could stand on a
box to see how you and they like it. And soil will spill through the
old hedge or rotting fences into those gardens next door: I don't
know how welcome that will be!

--
Mike.

thanks for your input Mike.
The ground floor of our house is on 3 different levels so we dont need
another one in the garden.
I am planning to add more concrete gravel boards to the fence to alleviate
the fence rotting problems so that isn't an issue.

This will be bordered on two sides by patio, on one railway sleepers and the
other on fencing.

Will check out your idea of aggregate though.
Thanks
Steve


"Mike Lyle" wrote in message
...
SteveO wrote:
The turf as it is, isnt very good. What i really need to know is
what
to fill the void with, is there something i should use under the
topsoil, that also may be cheaper.
[...]

Hmm. You could lay six inches of crusher run aggregate -- in size
about four inches down -- and then import your new topsoil onto that,
which would improve drainage and be cheaper than topsoil all the way.
But I'm not sure how much money that would save when the separate
costs of transport came in: find out the delivered cost of each, and
calculate from there.

But I know I'd leave it as it is, since I think you're very lucky to
have a garden on more than one level. Have you considered the fences
or hedges? If you don't build a strong low wall, they're going to
have their bottom eight to fifteen inches submerged in soil. This
will kill some or all of any hedge, rot or break a wooden fence, and
give you a new view into next-door's garden -- you could stand on a
box to see how you and they like it. And soil will spill through the
old hedge or rotting fences into those gardens next door: I don't
know how welcome that will be!

--
Mike.