New Lawn laying over where Patio Used to be!

Hello all,

I'm looking to lay a lawn (from turf) into my back yard where a patio used to be. The patio was sitting on a hardcore base. I have lifted the patio last year but then other more urgent work came up so have put off the lawn until now. I still need to lift the hardcore.

What I was wondering was (and I know this is difficult to answer with the information I have provided I'm just looking for a rough nudge int he right direction) what kind of quality soil I have under the hardcore given that what used to be a patio is now covered in patches of a kind of grass like substance, thistles, nettles and a few other weeds which I can't identify. I will admit I have let it get away from me.

My plan was to clear the space, lift the hardcore, rotavate what soil is under there and then lay some top soil on top of that heel it in and put the turf on top does this seem sensible, and what depth of top soil would people generally recommend for this kind of situation.

As an additional note I was planning on using rolawn turf - just wondering what opinions people had on this?

The yard is 48 by 30 foot so if I need to lay 150mm of top soil that is a lot of soil I need and given then it's growing a lot of "Stuff" at the moment I thought I'd as for some advice first.

Sorry if this has been posted before I'm sure there are similar threads but google didn't really give me much.

Thanks & Kind Regards,

Chris

 

Thank you JWK I thought that might be the case what with me painting half a picture.

I took a couple of pictures last night (please don't judge me I did say I let it get out of control)

This is the various fauna that is growing in there at the moment (there are nettles in there somewhere my legs will attest to that)







And I dug a little hole too, it looks like hard core, sand and then soil which is fairly rocky



I can dig a bigger hole if need be.

Kind Regards,

Chris

 

Hi John, Thanks for the reply. I will dig to that depth after work and get a picture.

To be honest (it's probably blindingly obvious) this is my first gardening / landscaping project so am completely new to most of this. In order to lay turf I (think) I need to remove all the Hard core so in order to get it back up to level I would need to replace that with some kind of earth and and then top soil on top of that.

The lawn isn't by any means going to be a bowling green I just want grass for the kids and dogs - does that make any difference to what I would need to do at all?

Kind Regards,

Chris

 

Hi @Chris Brown to GC and nice to have you with us

@JWK it looks like Chris may heavy clay soil as nettles love this

Soil Types And Weeds - How To Tell Which Soil You Have By The Weeds​

 

I dug a bit deeper and took some photos.







Kind Regards,

Chris

 

John,

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply with so much detail. I live in Carlisle that map (Awesome resource btw) suggests my soil is "Slowly permeable seasonally wet slightly acid but base-rich loamy and clayey soils" is that bad?

Kind Regards,

Chris

 

John,

You are filling me with a lot of confidence here. Thank you very very much for all your time, effort and help.

I will be sure to post some pictures once done!

Thank you again!

Kind Regards,

Chris

 

I suppose that`s just the kinda guy he is .......

 

Pop along to your local landscape merchant and see what they stock.
They will have all you need in regards to soil and turfs. Avoid any turf that has wire in it though.
Worth noting some years are better than others with turf but generally it’s ok.