Laying a new lawn - a different problem

Over the next two weeks I'm going to set about, in earnest, laying a new lawn in our shady/semi-shady back garden, mentioned previously on this thread.

I've procured some lawn seed from dobbies, which, allegedly, is designed for shady lawns. Into that I'm going to mix some wildflower seed - meadow and woodland - as a sort of experiment - if some of them take, I'll be happy with just a bit of colour.

I've also bought some new lawn soil. But before I get that far, there's quite a bit of remedial work to be done to the existing surface. Aside from getting to grips with the weeds - dock and dandelion mainly - which I am attacking with glyphosate based weedkiller, there seems to be quite a lot of moss lurking in between the existing grass once I start strimming and raking it.

I guess what I need to do once I'm satisfied I've deweeded as much as possible is to turn the soil over completely - and mix in the lawn soil, is that right? It's all very uneven anyway at present, and while I don't want a pristine English garden lawn, I'd like it to be less bumpy than it is. What are the best tactics here?

Also, I've noticed we've got a lot of wild strawberry growing in the shadier part of the garden, both at the edges, but also large parts of ground cover. My heart tells me not to treat this as weed, though they are barely any flowers - maybe too shady for it to do anything exciting. Anyone got any thoughts on this?

Once I can get my digital camera rigged up to the computer, I'll maybe post some pix.

Off to a car boot sale now to see if I can pick up any bargains.

Enjoy your Sunday. Sun is shining in Glasgow.

Dan

 

On Gardeners Question Time today they were saying it is nearly time for new lawns ,to do all the ground work and allow the soil to settle, dig it over and then, any weeds that come through can be removed before the final raking of the soil . :thumb: