Tilling the garden for a new lawn

As I’ve been pre occupied with my garage build for the past few years, in the meantime I’ve neglected my garden, to the point I needed a strimer to cut down the tall grass and lots of stinging nettles,

the grass and weeds at the back of the garden were so tall that once I cut down the grass & weeds I discovered I had the beginning of 3 new trees in the garden, our cherry tree rooted 3 new trees for us and two of the new trees had cherries on them, yep the birds got to the cherries in the end

The back half of our garden the grass was very sparse as the weeds and stinging nettles had over run that part of the garden, once I’d been through with the strimer there was hardly any grass to see

Afterwards I went on Facebook marketplace and bought arotavator/cultivator as good a new for £40, I got my moneys worth out of the thing,

once I used the rotator to get rid of the roots, I also brought up quite a few stones, so I got round to making myself an electric vibrating sieve, using 13mm wide wire mesh I attached it to timber making a square box and to this I attached a vibrator I bought months ago for another project of mine and in no time I had an electric sieve

The collected stones with all sorts of roots went in to a wheel barrow and took out of the garden

Any opinions on my next stage: I will be needing a few cubic meters of top soil as there wasn’t enough soil before to have a level lawn and now I’v took out quite a few stones there’s even less to level it up to the edging boards,


Options

1, just order top soil and rase the ground up to the edging boards

2, order sand and lay the sand first and topping it off with a bed of 60mm/100mm of top soil for the grass seed

3, order both sand and top soil then mix both together to give me a 70% sand to 30% top soil and level that up to the edging boards

Any other opinions are much welcomed

PS:I had images to add to this thread but sadly I don’t yet meet the requirements for image links

 

I'm surprised you've not had any replies yet @Mollydog , but it would help to know roughly your location and general climate.
That's simply because it can affect the drainage for your grass, which is quite important.

In drier areas, you'd want more soil than grit, and in wetter areas it's the other way round.
I say grit, because sand isn't always any use, and especially if it isn't the really gritty stuff. Pea gravel is better if you have clay soil and a wet climate. That's what I use if creating a new lawn, but that's because it suits my climate and conditions.
Whichever way you do it, it's better if the components are mixed, not separate, as that won't work. In heavier conditions, you can add some compost as well, but it's not necessary. It isn't vital to have an exact ratio either, but a 50/50 would be fine for most cases. If the ground is very uneven after rotovating, you'll need to spend a bit of time levelling and raking that to get a decent level before adding the new layer. Any compacted areas would benefit from a bit of spiking to loosen them up when you're doing that.
When you add the mix to your existing site, make it slightly higher than the edging boards because it'll settle over time, especially if you're leaving it over winter before turfing or sowing new seed.
If you intend getting it all in shape, and returfed/re seeded over the next month or so, you'll need to make sure you spend some time firming the new mix and raking and repeating that to get a good level site for it. There are specific gadgets for that, but you can do a similar thing by dragging a board attached to ropes, or similar, over it if it's large area, rather than doing it with your feet and a rake

 

Thank you for your reply fairygirl, I’m based in north Cambridgeshire (Peterborough)

The area previously (pre 1960) was a bit of a gravel pit, no clay in the soil, when we had the footings dug for our extension (20 years back) we had to go down 1M and due to trees in places 1.5M down and no sign of clay

The estate (built in 1962) was built on a bit of a hill around 35/45M above the local river a few hundred meters from us, the top 300/400mm of our back garden is all top soil from when I had the garden levelled 18 + years back, thank you for the tip to have the top soil higher than the edging board to allow for settling

Tomorrow I’ll post some images to give a better idea of what I’m doing

 

I'd expect a fairly even mix of soil and grit would be fine. You're in a much drier part of the country than me, and more likely to have grass drying out in summer than the opposite. Good drainage is always helpful though, especially with a new lawn and heading into winter. If you're seeding rather than turfing, pick a seed mix that will also suit the site. If you have a bit of shade in it, that's always worth considering. You should also be fine to seed if you're ready to do it over the next few weeks.
One thing I should have said is - as you've used a rotovator, you may find weeds are still in there. Any persistent perennial ones can be made even worse because if they're chopped by it, you can end up with even more of them. Any bits with root can take hold again, so you'll have to be vigilant with that. It may not be apparent until spring though, and at least you can safely address that if you've got an established lawn by then.

 

@Mollydog - totally unconnected... Do you own a Lotus??? No wonder you've been building a garage ! (I had one for many years)
As @fairygirl suggests, soil + grit, though I'd also add extra organic matter if you can. Yes, you may produce lots of weeds by chopping but they can be sorted by regular mowing. My partner's house had loads of brambles and stones in the "lawn" area. An excavator with a riddle bucket sorted the stones, and the brambles are dying back because of frequent lawn mowing.

 

@ CarolineL

yes I do own a Lotus, it’s an Elise S1, I’ve owned the Elise since 2010, till covid hit us I had been driving it to Italy every summer from 2010, I used to love every minute of the trips solo as I took early retirement I used to go mid July and return last days of August beginning of September

My late dad left me his home in Italy, 35Km/40Km from the Amalfi coast, also have a few Dashcam recordings of parts of the trips I used to take,

I used to do a lot of site-seeing on the way and what could of been a non strop 24/26 hour drive I turned them in to a 6 or 7 day trip going and returning, stopping in hotels over night

The avatar of my Elise was taken in France on one of my trips

I bought my timber for my garage in December 2019, just a few months before lockdown which held me up till 2022 as I couldn’t get hold of tradesmen due to the lockdown

once lockdown was lifted the tradesmen took on better paid work then my two bit job, so I went to the back of the queue,

if you want to read my 4 year adventure of the ups and downs I went through building my 6M x 6M garage/workshop with lots of images and some YouTube clips, the link is:

PS. I can't add links as I don't yet have any likes :(

 

Yes - most weeds can be kept in check with mowing, but some may need a little spot application of weedkiller, but it also depends on how fussy you are about them and having 'perfection'.
I don't bother with any of the low growing ones that the mower misses - daisies, speedwell etc, but buttercups usually get pulled out when I see them, and dandelions get a little treatment now and again, and before anyone says 'but dandelions are so wonderful for goldfinches' - we're surrounded by gazillions of them everywhere you look, so I don't think the goldies are going to starve!
It's particularly important to let it all settle if you add any organic matter, because it'll break down far more than ordinary soil.

 

So have I - I think it's the first time in my years at GC that I've done it - not exactly down with the kids in use of aspects of social media

 

Thank you all for the advice, help and the likes so I can post links to my images, went to post with my links and I meet all but one of the criteria now, that is I must be a member for more than one day, I’ll try later today to post with links if no success I’ll post in the morning

 

I've liked you too @CarolineL - so you don't feel left out

The pix will help a bit @Mollydog - but don't worry too much. We'll get there - and so will you

 

PART1

Thank you all for all the information given, it’s much appreciated and more so for giving me the Likes

This was my original first post I was planning on posting but as a new member I needed links and be a member for longer than a day

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Here’s a couple of images taken when I first start my garage build 2/3 years back showing the grass and stinging nettles starting to take over





Sadly I forgot to take any photos of the garden before making a start but the grass and weeds at the back of the garden were so tall that once I cut down the grass/stinging nettles & weeds I discovered I had the beginning of 3 new trees in the garden, our cherry tree rooted 3 new trees for us and two of the new trees had cherries on them, yep the birds got to the cherries in the end







The back half of our garden the grass was very sparse to say the least, as the weeds and stinging nettles had over run that part of the garden, once I’d been through with the strimer there was hardly any grass to see





And full of roots like this



I made some holes in a 205Lt drum and started burning





Afterwards I went on Facebook marketplace and bought arotavator/cultivator as good a new for £40, I got my moneys worth out of the thing,













When our bungalow was originally built in the 60’s a raised patio was added outside the kitchen door as the garden was around 50 to 60cm lower than the kitchen door, when we added an extension to our bungalow (20 years ago) I had around 10 (or more) skips of top soil to bring the whole garden up level with the patio

In 2011 we had a professional gardener in to take up the lawn (if you could call it that) and lay new lawn sod, they rotated the ground deep, in doing so they brought up a few large stones, wasn’t an issue at the the sod covered everything up

This time round once I used the rotator to get rid of the roots, I also brought up quite a few stones, so I got round to making myself an electric vibrating sieve, using 13mm wide wire mesh I attached it to timber making a square box and to this I attached a vibrator I bought months ago for another project of mine and in no time I had an electric sieve

 

PART 2
The collected stones with all sorts of roots went in to a wheel barrow and took out of the garden



















The other week I bought myself one of those 4 wheel bucket/trailer things, nothing professional, just comes in handy putting lots of tools in it saving making lots of trips back and forth with a hand full of tools









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This is where I left off last night









As for the link to 4 years of my garage build I think most DIY’ers might find it interesting, even if only looking at the images, it’s here:

Building my timber garage/workshop | Retro Rides

@CarolineL (and others too)

Might find these clips of my Elise in Europe interesting

Just getting off the Euro-tunnel in France very early in the morning



In the Alps



Along the Amalfi coast in the Elise



In Switzerland driving up to the St, Bernard’s pass, till the camera falls off the mount



France, in France and Switzerland I only drive on A and B roads to enjoy the trip at a leisurely pace, and even then I quite often divert from the sat-nav recommendation



Pontarlier France



Returning to the UK through the Euro-tunnel



The Elise outside my late dads house in Italy

From the road


From the end of our field


Hope all is OK with the mod’s with this post

 

@Mollydog those journeys looked blissful!
I'm afraid I spent most of the time driving ours (1974 Elan +2) thinking "What's that noise? Has it changed? Has something dropped off?"
Your full tilt approach to gardening and other things reminds me of another person on here - @Retired . Another not afraid of hard work!

 

Hi,

Many thanks for the mention @CarolineL I find most of my older generation was brought up on hard work but all those years ago to eat meant working unlike now. I'm a young 77 tomorrow; yesterday I strimmed both our wildflower meadows making them look tidy.

Good advice @fairygirl. I treated lots of couch grass differently though; I'd pull lots out by hand but there were always bits left in; I went over with the rotavator chopping the lot up; this killed lots of the grass but now when new grass appeared it was very easy to pull out because the roots were so much shorter; this was a couple of years ago and I've rotavated a number of times since; there's very little couch grass left so it worked for me.

Back to the plot; what an interesting thread you've added @Mollydog; you certainly like hard work and get stuck into it with a passion; well done; I don't have enough spare time to browse your YouTube videos but I do like older cars having owned many over the years. Bron and I now have a Skoda Yeti it being the 2.0L diesel Adblue model making it only £35 per year road tax; it was bought new in 2016 and is the best car we've ever owned and it's a keeper; we wouldn't have an electric car given; we'd be frightened going to bed with one of these on our property.

You've got a big property @Mollydog I bet the house and land take a lot of keeping up to with maintenance; full credit to you for working so hard; it'll keep you young unlike those who retire and drop dead the day after due to thinking retirement means being lazy. I've been retired 23 years and am always ultra busy; it tires me out but I'm still fit enough to climb big trees and fell them; Here's one of the laurel stumps i dug out with spade and hydraulic jacks; just this one took a full week of extremely hard work;


Do you have anything similar to remove. All your hard work will keep you fit and at the end you can stand back and be proud of what you've done; good on you.

Kind regards, Col.