Raised garden

So if you're following my thread you will see they my garden is on a slope, I have started to build it up with raised sleepers, question I have is the side where the sleepers meet the soil do I cover in black plastic or can I seal it with a kind of paint to give it a few extra years

 

Hi, We did both with ours when we were landscaping, some timber treatment first then we put a membrane in between the sleepers and the soil to give it the best possible chance of lasting as long as possible.

Are you getting old/new sleepers? Maybe look into getting ready treated ones.

http://www.screwfix.com/p/sika-sikagard-universal-5-star-wood-treatment-clear-5ltr/66962

 

New treated oak sleepers, I will do both I might also put some fence paint on the back also, next question I have some old turf am I ok to turn these upside down and lay on the ground and cover with topsoil so that they rot away?

See picture of what I mean

 

They will rot away yes.. Depends what you are planning to do though? Is it to make a raised bed or to be reseeded?

 

I'm making a raised lawn

 

I did but only because we had over a foot of top soil on top. Possibly best practice not too though. We didn't have to do a lot either.

I didn't want to have to go to the tip AGAIN. Haha.

 

another question i have is, what do i do with the old lawn that is on the inside of the raised bed? Do i weed kill it before adding the top soil on top of it or rotorvate it or leave it?

Cheers

Jamie

 

I cant find your original post now but I remember replying as I had done something VERY similar to you. All I did was dig it up and turn the turf face down and putting the top soil on top. That was as much to give me a nice level area before I put the top soil down so may not have been needed. I just didn't was tufts of grass sprouting up while I waited for the top soil to settle.

And on that note, you will need to leave the top soil to settle for about a month before turfing, otherwise you will find that some areas drop leaving you with an uneven lawn. If your going to this much trouble, you wont want that.