Paul's Morecambe Nightmare

Ahhhh TT! A biking man! Most of my family are bikers, although I'm not, I love to be out there amongst it all and spent my birthday this year at the Ramsey sprint. Give me a shout nearer the time and perhaps we can meet up when you're here. I've lived on the island nearly twenty one years, currently in Kirk Michael and Essex born and reared for my sins.

 

Hello all,
been a while since posting as I have been away working and getting married but not much changed in the garden due to all this. I nearly died when a landscape gardener came and to level the garden, patio, turf down the side and put a fence up all round he quoted £6000 materials and a further £6000 labour. Included mini digger to remove tree roots, bushes and the fence was wooden posts and not concrete like I wanted. He was leaving the existing wall and just panel fencing against it. I expected 5k ish for a nice garden for my little boy this spring and then I can work on making it more personal later. With been away it makes it hard to do large amounts of work myself and I feal guilty my boy has no garden to play in at home. We want the garden complete so we can eventually put the house up for sale so not looking for RHS standard but surely 12-15k is well ott ????

 

It may take a few years to sell with the way the market is so we would like something we can enjoy and use all year and my little boy is really outdoorsy so would just love something for him too. I'm only thinking of patio/paving and grassed area at the rear, border for some flowers and colour and secure fencing all round. The side of the house I want to turf or just flag and have segregated for my dog's 'toilet' and play area when its nice to be outside and not walkies time..... nothing extravagant just simple and nice

 

Grass seed would be cheaper (soil preparation is the same though, which may be significant, overall, if you are paying someone to do it for you). Be a month of two before you can walk on it though - perhaps 3 - 4 weeks if you turf it, maybe a bit longer before the dogs could safely play there without ripping it up - so might be much of a muchness, timewise.

Plus you can choose hard wearing grass seed mix for where the dogs are, and a normal garden lawn (NOT a Fine Lawn) seed mix for the rest. It is harder, but not impossible, to get turf in a variety of formulations.

From the Telegraph (admittedly several years ago, but competitively the prices will stand up to scrutiny - just add inflation ). Which? did the comparison in May, which is nuts, its far too late to sow a new lawn (can be done, but you wouldn't do it at that time from choice), so some of the Cons are not really relevant.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardenin...4/Which-makes-the-best-lawn-turf-or-seed.html

Which? Gardening took two identical areas that had previously been set up as typical small gardens (about 36 sq yd). Each featured a central path and was surrounded by fences and hedges. The soil in both gardens was cleared and prepared, then one was seeded and the other turfed. The progress of both lawns was monitored for two months, with both patches mowed when necessary.

Top-quality turf costs £130 for 36 sq yd. The rolls of turf were fairly heavy and awkward to move – worth bearing in mind if access to your garden is restricted. Laying turf is more labour intensive than seed and it took about 40 minutes to complete the garden (not including soil preparation), but this included trimming the edges

Using a Best Buy grass seed cost just £14 for 2kg, with some left over for over-seeding gaps later. And once the ground had been prepared, it was quick and easy to sow. It took about 10 minutes to sow and rake in. it took six weeks and several cuts before it began to resemble the turf lawn. It was much easier for weeds to invade the seeded lawn than when we used turf.

http://www.lawnsmith.co.uk/novice/creating-a-new-lawn/grass-seed-vs-lawn-turf

Advantages of Grass seed

• At least a tenth of the price of lawn turf therefore the most cost effective
• More choice of lawn type from ornamental to play lawns and shady to drought tolerant lawns
• Tends to acclimatise better in difficult conditions e.g. shade or heavy soil
• Very easy to spread lawn seed by hand or with a spreader
• Can be sown in a tenth of the time compared to turf
• Preparation is the same as for turf
• Can usually buy the same or very similar lawn seed for repairs years later

Disadvantages of Grass Seed

• Not very ‘instant’; needs a couple of months to establish
• Heavy rain will wash seed off slopes
• Can be prone to attack by birds
• Needs more aftercare for the first month than turf

Advantages of Lawn Turf

• Visually it’s an instant lawn
• Can be used within a month or so
• For small areas or repairs where cost is not so important it is good but time consuming
• Won’t wash off slopes during heavy rain like grass seed
• Less watering required after sowing than seed; still needs some though
• Turf laying can be done all year round but makes for a perfect winter job!

Disadvantages of Turf

• Cost; can be expensive for large areas
• Limited choice readily available
• Needs to be laid as soon as possible after delivery

 

Congratulations.

Your little boy would probably love it even more if he was involved in its creation, even if the result is far from perfect. My back garden would win no prizes (unless there is a prize for messy garden) but the lad and I have had so much fun, and continue to have so much fun building it how we want it.

 

Thank you for the congrats, I would love to let my little bot help but at present the garden is really unsafe with edges of exposed foundations and metal tie wires....scaffold planks are now used to enter/exit back doors and the amount of rubble in the soil is ridiculous. I had thought of getting someone to clear and level the garden and just erect the whole new fencing. After that I had thought of some nice paving design along the back of house approx. 12ft out by 30ft across and then working on the rest of the garden. Not sure how much this would cost but its got to be cheaper than having it landscaped professionally. The garden is then secure and I can put a shed down the side for all the necessities and work on the blank canvas with my boy ???

 

Definitely make it safe first. You can't make it totally safe, there will always be hazards, but obviously if its very dangerous, then that needs sorting first.

Last year, as my battle with garden started to reach the far end, I had loads of broken flagstones and rocks and other nasty sharp edges and hard things and opportunities to fall and split your head open. I had to declare that whole area off limits to the lad until I'd tidied it up.