concrete to lawn!

Hi everybody
Me and my wife have started attacking the garden when we moved in it was york stone from front to rear 14ft wide 65ft long. I have BY HAND dug up all the york stone and incredibe deep hard core undernieth.
But now im stuck what is my next step?rotavating or top soil i would like to seed not turf. This is my first garden so any tips would help
cheers Deano

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner

Blimey that sounds like it was hard work, did you get a good price for the stone?

I'm guessing it'll be pretty compacted so rotovating would break it up drainage wise, just check where the services run first, don't want to be smashing thru a land drain or worse.

Water pipes should be 30inches deep but might not be in an older property.

 

I just filled three 6 yard skips mate coulndnt find anyone to buy it
I have checked water and gas and they are clear of the garden
Is it best to hire a rotavator?once rotavated do i lay top soil?

 

Thats a shame. Hire or borrow one, not worth buying if you are putting it down to lawn.

They're hard work mind.

The soil will probably be lacking in nutrients if its been under slabs for a while, rain will have got between them & washed the goodness out, unless its clay, which has quite a bit locked up in it.

Might be worth thinking about rotavating a few loads of spent mushroom compost in, to condition the soil.

See what it comes out like once its done, if you can rake the top into a reasonably fine tilth then you might not need topsoil.

 

ill try and post some pictures up as i go!

 

Have you put the York stone up on ebay? Try it in April/May, I'd have thought it would go like the clappers.

 

No its all gone in the skips i had no space to store

 

Have you got any spare £20 notes you haven't got room for?

 

The shed at the bottom has now gone where i have dug all the stone up it has left a big hole from top to bottom of garden i assume that i need to fill this in to level as well as rotavating?

 

i had no idea it was worth anything plus no i dont have any room for that amount of stone

 

Its a shame, but what's done is done. Yorkshire stone is popular and very expensive. A reclamation yard owner would have give you something for it, and the worst bit is that the skip hire firm will have almost certainly picked it and and sold it, but of course they'll have still charged you to take it away.

 

Welcome to GC, deano

See, you needed us before you began hand lifting that stone

You've done an incredible amount of work so far Are you absolutely certain you want it all lawn? Have you considered a raised bed to grow a few veggies in? Maybe a small fruit tree? Some herbs to toss on hot bbq coals?

Also, will you be replacing the shed? Even a simple lawn needs a lawnmower and somewhere to store it.

Obviously, do have a good long think about what you want and need from your garden before making any (potentially) costly mistakes. At the moment, it sounds like you have created a blank canvas to play with but you also need to think about how much time you have to spend each week on a garden. Lawn mowing can be time intensive - not now, but come Spring it all begins and then in Summer you'll be on 2 cuts per week. Now comes the thinking: what will you do with all those clippings? Have you factored in a compost bin to put them in (and quite a bit of your kitchen waste, paper waste too)?

Just throwing those thoughts out there, deano

 

Hi mum
We have had a good think over the past two years and a basic but nice lawn with a small shed at the bottom is perfect for us we have a patio which you cant see in the pics.
We both have full time jobs so a lawn i can cope with plus this is our first garden as our first properties where both flats i dont want to over complicate things as im all new to this lol!!

Thanks for the great replys everybody

 

Sounds like a plan, deano

Just so you know ... it *can* become addictive Looking forward to seeing how it develops; I think it's wonderful that you have both given it much thought and will reap the benefits of that!

Enjoy