Need Advise for new Lawn and levelling the garden

Good Afternoon guys,

i am seeking much needed help from you guys, this is my first post .

I have bought a house in 2018 and the garden was in such a state, i will give you brief idea of the lay out so the house was extended at the rear and coming out the patio doors at the back there was 3 meter decking area and then rest of it was more or less neglected forest. with lots and lots of rubble, unwanted bases for i guess summer houses ( no summer house or green house just the base) plenty of conifers so over the years i have myself worked and did bits by bits as we are young growing family plus we got the house on the max end budget so with all the expenses i wasn't able to afford to get a landscaper.
Anyway last summer i took the decking out and and patio done myself, now i have got big area which i want natural lawn all over i have last year had few diggers and rotation sessions to get the garden as flat as i could and it appears very flat but i m bit too fussy, i want it perfectly flat. Whats the best way to go about it what tools will i need i am going to seed it, i have already bought big bag of seed from Rolawn and pre-seeding fertilizer. soil drains really well even with rain we had during winter i never had any puddles at all and water drained very very well. so my plan now is to rotavate it and grade it I have got natural slope so ground at the back fence is higher than the house and side fence is higher on the walkway side and my neighbours fence is lower so. i cant get rid of the slope as its quiet significant but all i want is just have it graded flat and get rid of bumps and dips whats the best way to do it?
i will upload as many pics as i can thanks

 

By the way recent i have had glyphosate sprayed and killed all the weeds think i need to get the rotavator in and will get the dead weeds raked out. I always wanted timber edging flush to patio and loan so when mowing it i can have two wheels of mower on edging

 

Welcome Hardik. You may be able to hire a garden lute to level the garden but a cheaper way would be to drag a ladder attached to rope across it.

 

Thanks I'm thinking of using blue chep pallet for levelling

 

I thought i would give an update on the progress i made on Thursday i rotavated all garden to very good depth, about 200mm plus all over. I raked out almost a tonne of stones however there is still plenty more the more i sieve the more appeared so i had to do with what it was and then seeded the Ro-lawn medallion turf seed and pre-seeding fertilizer before seeding....

 

You've made a good job of that Hardik. It's impossible to remove all the stones but as long as all the larger ones are gone it should be fine. Having used a pre-seeding fertiliser I would advise you not to feed the new lawn again this year. There will be enough nutrients in the soil and over feeding new grass can be damaging. Water it regularly in dry spells throughout this spring and summer as the roots will still be establishing themselves.

 

At the minute I am keeping the soil moist all the time, I'm able to walk on the ground to water it.

I'm watering it once in the morning at 6.30am before and then at 5pm after work, I'm making sure it's not soggy or over watering nor I'm watering less to get it dry, however on Monday I could see on my cctv at work that I went dry at about 13:00 and was dry till 17:00 when I got back and could water it. Will that have any effect I was getti g paranoid as due to sun It went all dry but since then it has been moist all the time.

My concern is once it starts germinating is it OK for the purpose of watering to walk on it?? I don't have enough pressure to walk on weed membrane on side and reach all area what can I do I will highly appreciate your help. I have to walk where I have seeded

 

Can I ask which way your garden faces? Does it have sun for most of the day?

 

Yes my garden have sun all day. Sun rises on my drive but by 9.30am all of my garden gets the and untill sun sets It'll be sunny all day just towards later part after 17:00 I get shady areas

 

There's no need to worry about it drying out. When I grow new grass I only water once a day after sunset. At that time of day there is no sun to dry it out and it will remain damp overnight. As long as you water it every day it will be fine. Grass is a lot tougher than we think.

If you use a gun attachment on your hose you should be able to reach most areas without having to walk on the lawn. There are different settings on the gun and one of those will probably give you the water pressure you need. Try to keep walking on the lawn to a minimum until it is established. If you have to, it would be best to walk around the edges.

 

Hey, thanks for the advise I underestimated the different setting and not even tried it all to see the coverage it worked well. I for last few days used gun with thrower settings and walked on all the edging area on side to water it all. I had not watered for last 2-3 days and I was bit of disappointed as its day 14 and not seen any sprouts however upon closer look there's plenty of grass sprouted and I was chuffed to bits I was very very amazed and happy, its actually sprouted all over but its very thin, I'm attaching the pictures. I am feeling very happy

 

I'm glad to hear you managed to sort out the watering problem. I don't know what area you live in but it's been a cold start to this Spring in many parts of the country. That will delay germination and growth which normally needs a temperature about 12C.

Did you follow the instructions on the packaging for how much seed to sow? I tend to over-sow using a lot more than suggested. Some for the lawn, some for failure and some for the birds that will eat it. If you don't get a good covering then you will have to sow more, keep an eye on what comes up over the next week or so.

 

Hi, I live at Leicester East midlands. It has been completely dry 2 weeks since I seeded the lawn and yes evening and mornings were very cold but fairly good in between. We had drizzle on Saturday so didn't need to water and today quite considerable rain.

Yes I did follow what said on the tin, I had bought the 20 KG Rolawn medallion seeds, it says it will cover 550 Meter square, and my lawn area is roughly 230 Meter Square. I did follow the calibration process of the broadcast seeder and did as per rate said in the advise by Rolawn for both fertilizer and the seeds. It was good coverage i used 2/3rd or more of the seeds so definitely over seeded, there were birds everyday but I'm not concerned on the spread and coverage as I m sure I have done a good job on that.

 

Here you can see roughly the spread of the seeds whilst I was lightly raking it in after I spreaded seeds. On the left lightly raked, on the right seeds on surface to be raked in.

 

Thank you Hardik. It would be helpful for any future questions if you could add your area to your avatar box. East Midlands would be fine. Climate from one end of the country to the other is quite different and your area will help us give you the appropriate answers.

Yes, I think you've given it a good covering of seed. It's now just a matter of waiting for it all to germinate and reach the point of it's first mowing. Please don't use a strimmer on it as it will tear the young grass out of the ground.