seed or turf

hi all i'm completely new to gardening, i managed to grow a new lawn in my back garden last year from seed and it turned out quite well. last year though i just went on advice from a neighbour so i thought i'd ask on here before i start my front garden, at the moment its just a mass of weeds and looks awful, is there some threads i could read for further advice ? Should i use seed again or turf ? Have i left it to late in the year to lay one this year ? Thanks in advance

charlton

 

Turf is instant, but relatively expensive.

Seed takes longer, but is cheaper.

You can turf it any time of the year, but obviously if you do it in High Summer you are going to have to work hard to keep it alive. A hose pipe ban, if one happened, will be a bit of a bore!

Personally I would kill the current weeds with Roundup. They will all slowly go yellow (over about 2 weeks) and that will probably look worse than whatever you have got now! I'd then treat anything that was still green (i.e. if you have missed any bits).

(Don't get Roundup on any plant that you want to keep, and watch out for any that may be on the bottom of your shoes after you've treated the area; once its dried [a few minutes] it won't pose any real threat to anything, except fish - so watch out for any pond if you have one)

I would then prepare the ground, get it nice and smooth [get a ladder, put some bricks / weights on it to weigh it down a bit, tie a rope around the top / bottom rung, and drag it back and forth. If the area is tiny, or already flat-as-a-billiard-table then this may be overkill!!]

Personally I would seed it, so that means leaving it like that until the Autumn. That will give you a chance to get rid of any new weeds that spring up. But it may be too bland in the meantime?

Once you've prepared the ground you could just lay turf instead.

Don't walk on the turf when you are laying it. Lay a board across the top, and walk on that instead (to spread your weight), and make sure the turves are butted up tightly against each other (they may shrink as they dry out a bit, and that will leave gaps - i.e. look like a brick wall's mortar joints if you are not careful!).

Water well after laying, and if the weather is dry, but don't water unless it needs it - you want the roots to go down in search of water, and not be dependant on you like a spoiled child!

 

thanks for the reply kristen, still unsure whether to seed or turf at the moment, depending on how much more it'll cost to turf i might sway for this idea simply because i don't want the front of my house to look horrible while waiting til autumn !

cheers

charlton

 

There's a calculator here:

http://www.rolawndirect.co.uk/products-turf-medallion_turf.html

which will help you work out what turf would cost.

 

hi there

i would go for turf seeds a pain in the bum takes ages to knit together and in the mean time weeds invaid it and moss i have done both and find seed cheaper but in the long run i dug it all up and put turf down ,

if you do decide to use seed use canada green more expensive than the others but its up in 7 days and knits together alot quicker than any i have used before .

good luck

 

As a contractor, I tend to seed using a similar method to that kristen describes albeit I spray, leave for 2 weeks then run a cultivator or digger over over, rake and roll, leave a week then lightly rake and seed.

Personally I dont use the ladder method as I can get a bowling green flatness by eye with rakeing and or a 3 ton excavtor. A pree seed fertiliser helps it establish as does light watering.

To get a good finish with turf you need to do the same prep as for seed anyway.

Catwoman, any patchy areas were germination is poor, rake lightly with a springbok rake and overseed.

This is a job i frecently did, (1 month ago ish)






The next day I raked it down a bit more, spread some topsoil over the digger tracks and seeded, the seed has completly taken and the lawn is being mowed normally. Due to the size of the area above turf would have been very ££.