Sowing new lawn

Hi! I'm new to this forum, and I've got some questions about getting a new lawn going.

My parents have had our house for a good 20 years or so, but we've neglected the little back garden for the last few years. I'm spending a lot of time at home this summer, and since my mum can't do much hard gardening due to a bad back, I thought I should try and do some of the hard work for her.

Anyway, the lawn (about 15 metres squared, I think) is currently clumpy and on uneven ground, so it seems best to just take it all up and start again. Unfortunately, we can't afford to buy turf, so we'll have to try and grow it from seed.

The ground, apart from being uneven at the moment, is also quite stony with bits of builders' debris in it, left from before the house was bought.

Bearing these things in mind, if any you could help with my questions, that would be great.

- Any tips on levelling uneven ground?

- Will the stones be a problem for growing grass, or should we try and clear some out? If so, how could one go about clearing stones from earth?

- Is this an ok time of year for sowing grass? Any tips on getting it to grow happily?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me!

 

hi leonie

welcome to GG

i am no expert on lawns but have layed 4 using turf and sown 2 by seed so will try and help best i can ,

if the ground is uneven then you do need to try get it as even as posible,

i dug up all the old turf and as much brick rubble stones ect as i could small ones will be ok but anything bigger than a tomartoe remove it then i ordered some top soil as i live on clay so needed a better start for the seed ,

if you can't afford to get top soil then you really need to rake the soil you have untill you get it as level as you can and without bumps in it,

then i sprinkled the seed all over :D

the only problem with growing from seed is the birds pinch it and if you have cats they use it as a massive loo

so i put loads of sticks into the ground as i sowed it and put all cotton round the sticks which did work apart from my cat going commando under and taking a no :2 which left a bauld patch so had to re-sow that bit.

as for sowing seed best times are when the ground is soft damp and warm so any time from april onwards .

i would also try to get a good brand of seed as i bought a cheap make asda's own this year and it took 7 weeks to start sprouting , so i used evergreen which was up in 6 days.

someone may advise you to put a fertilizer down before putting the seed on if you don't put top soil down first .

hope that helps a little

good luck

 

Thank you so much, that's great advice!

I've been trying to take out the biggest lumps, luckily there aren't too many big ones. Hopefully I'll be able to sow it in the next couple of weeks.