TAKING LAWN UP

COULD ANYONE PLEASE ADVISE ME ON TAKING MY LAWN UP:
I INTEND TO REPLACE MY LAWN WITH A STONE CIRCLE AND GRAVELLED AREAS:
DO I KILL THE LAWN OFF IF SO WHAT IS THE BEST METHOD?
OR DO I HIRE A TURF LIFTER AND SKIP ?
WHAT IS THE BEST WEED SUPPRESSANT TO USE ONCE THE LAWN IS UP?
IF ANYONE CAN HELP ME PLEASE I'D BE VERY GRATEFUL
THANK YOU

 

Do you actually need to take the lawn up (eg, for levelling etc.)? Most old lawns are already nicely compacted and if you start digging them up you'll have to recompact what's left.

For laying slabs it's a lot easier to use a herbicide such as Roundup on the area of grass you want to kill off. Once the grass is dead give it a good rake over to remove the thatch and any stones then lay heavy duty woven plastic weed suppressant sheet. Once you have your base then add a 1" min. layer of builder's sand where you want your circle, firm it down and level off, lay your slabs on top and bed them in. Done properly with sand on a firm base slabs shouldn't move or rock.

All that then remains is to use gravel on the rest of the area to bring it up to the same level as your centre piece. It will raise the overall level (roughly 2" or so) and you may need to add an edging to retain the gravel otherwise it will migrate into your borders etc.

Instead of sand for bedding down on you can use a dry sand/cement mix which then sets later after it absorbs moisture but it's more permanant and costs a bit more. As in all things, so in gardening - fashions and circumstance change and it's nice to know you can reverse what you have done without too much hassle.