lawn preperation

Hi all

I'm in the process or trying to sort out my garden after too many years of having a worksite out there. I'm looking to have a nice green lawn but am after some help on the preparation. At the moment it is an uneven area with grass and weeds in patches. My first problem is how do I clear it completely (weeds and patchy grass), so I can level it and then lay the grass?

Thanks for any help and advice,

Vijay

 

Hi Vijay,

If the weeds and grass are really patchy, you could just rotavate the soil straight away, but if not, you may want to kill the surface growth off with Roundup first.

You'll need to rotavate anyway, as this will break the soil up so you can level it, as well as getting some air into it - if you've been using it for a work area, it is probably quite compacted.

Once you've turned the soil over you can start raking it level. If it's a big area, it's worth spending �£20 or so on a proper landscape rake with a blade on the top. These are wider (so faster) than normal rakes, but if you turn the rake upside down you can use the blade to pull a perfect level. Once you've got that, heel the soil in well and give it a final rake over.

Then you can sow the seed or lay the turf

 

Hi,

Thanks for the reply Can I ask what "Roundup" is?

Cheers

Vijay

 

Oh, sorry

Roundup is a translocated total herbicide, meaning that it kills grass and weeds alike. Translocated means that the chemical goes right through the root system, killing the entire plant, instead of just killing off the surface growth.

 

I would add that if there are other difficult weeds like thistles, ragwort or dockens, you should consider the use of additional weed contol such as MCPA, Triclopyr and Fluoxypyr. Also, if your ground is heavily compacted (can you push a spike in easily to 8 inches?) Heave soil with fork to 8 inches before rotovating.

 

Are these weedkillers available to ordinary gardeners angusfromturfandstuff? I've not seen them in my local garden centre
Pete

 

I cannot endorse products here but you can find most of these included in the ingredients of certain garden centre chemicals, there is no substitute to investing in a magnifying glass and reading the back of the packs (you should do this anyway to check the relative strengths). Try typing those names into google.

 

I do tend to read the small print on such things and usually I find that there are two or three products with different names that contain exactly the same ingredients.
pete

 

That is right but check what percentage of "active ingredient" is included as some products are stronger than others