Tilling the garden for a new lawn

I’ve still been busy on the garden, I’ve used up the edging boards I bought for the job,





I had planed to stop here, only go round half the garden with the edging boards and new top soil, now I’ve changed my mind and will go closer to the bungalow with the top soil so need a few more edging boards,

I’m also plan on levelling the grass I’m leaving and over seeding that area and might use some spare pieces I have kicking around for the

Was raining the other day, I love the rain whether cuddling up inside the bungalow watching the rain outside or be in it outside, for sieving the soil is wasn’t going to be possible if it was raining



I was planing in buying a lawn levelling rake but after seeing the cost of a good one I went out and bought some metal tubes and will weld my own,

The tubes were 1.5M long I cut them down to 1M as I’m making the levelling rake 1m x (approx)350mm, just having difficulty finding a 2M long handle at the moment







I went round to my local builders merchant who supplies both top soil



and grit



They can deliver it by bags, 600/700Kg or by the tone which works out cheaper, or you get more for the same price of bags, while I was there I was thinking of getting 3 tones of each and also hire a cement mixer for £50 for 7 days to mix the grit and soil with

If I get it in tones they will deliver it on a 6 wheeler Transit pickup, the pickup can hold only 4 tones so they would have to make 2 trips and today after levelling off the mounds of top soil I’d sieved I think maybe 4 tones will do me so maybe get 2 tones of each and see how far that would take me, if not enough I can always ask for the other 2 tones

I wen’t to go-outdoors (as a member I got 57% off the pegs and also buy one get one free), 4 bags of tent pegs paid £6, using these ro level across to give me some idea how deep the top soil needs to be, so first thing to do was to straighten out the hook to give me a longer peg













Just about make out the peg

 

Then with wheelbarrow and continental shovel in hand off I went and spread the soil around the edges first













You may well ask why round the edges first, I’d had a 6 wheeler Transit tipper round to the back garden before so know one will be able to drive on to my lawn, buy spreading the soil I have now to the sides, I’ll just get the driver to tip his load on to the centre of the new area that needs soil and I’ll have less work to do moving the soil around

Finally as the soil I’ve moved around to the edges is very soft I used a water filled roller (I bought the other day off Facebook market place for a tenner) and went round the edge just the once till I get my levelling rake finished









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Wow @Mollydog - great work! It's going to be a lovely area

 

Thank you Caroline, for sure it’s hard work

I’m hoping to be able to get the seeds down by end of September, any opinions what grass seeds I should be looking for?

Overall the garden gets the sun all round bar between the side of the cherry tree and the fence tends to be shady there all year round

 

I'd look up Boston seeds. I got a mix from there that doesn't need such frequent mowing. But if you want a really fancy lawn, then I suspect you need to ask someone like @LawnAndOrder what they recommend.

 

I was busy in the garden last week, I put in an order for top soil/grit mix, the lorry could carry 4 tonnes so I thought I’d buy 4 tonnes and see how far this got me, the lorry was larger then the Transit van I was expecting but it still managed to get to the back of my garden











It didn’t look much, I new right away I needed another load so after the driver finished I phoned in for another load for the next morning



Barrow and shovel in hand got round to moving the soil round the garden





To get some idea how much was needed I started using a 3M long timber and I was sure I needed a lot more than a further 4 tonnes







I decided to use pegs to give me a better idea how high I needed to go (plan on having the soil 50 to 100mm higher in the middle then sloping down to the edge boards)

With the 3M timber I get to level the sand & soil approx 50mm lower than the edging boards then finally order another lorry load of just top soil and no sand







That 4 tonnes didn’t go that far





This is level with the edging boards

 

The next morning the lorry arrived with a further 4 tonnes of top soil & sand







It still didn’t look enough for the job











I went round with my garden roller



Then my wife popped out and helped out by walking on the top soil and after using one of the rakes to level off any humps









This is as far as I am at the moment



A couple of sellers on Facebook marketplace are selling top soil for £40 per 800Lt bags just waiting to hear back from them

 

It's amazing how much topsoil it takes! You're doing well - hope the weather holds up for you

 

Absolutely Caroline, to think I thought I could have got away with 4 tonnes of top soil is a bit of a joke now, hopefully this next load will do the job

I went over to Bourne (Nr Peterborough) to see the top soil being sold on Facebook market for £40 per 800Lt bags the other day, looked very good soil to me, in fact this top soil looked better then the ones I saw last week at a builders merchant selling them at near £60/£80

I asked for 7 bags so hopefully this should be around about enough, might need the odd bag but I think I’m close to what I need, I’m hoping I'll get the soil for the weekend as I’ve heard its going to be rather wet after that

Going back to a privious post on this thread where I mentioned I bought some 25mm x 25mm box metal to make my own lawn rake, well I made a start the other day

For the life of me I couldn’t find anyone on the internet I could by an 80” long handle from , maybe I wasn’t asking the right question, my local timber merchant was selling 4M hand rails so I bought one length @£11 and cut that to size



I rounded off one end



I also bought a gate hinge to use as the moving part on the handle, I had to cut in to the handle to fit the hinge on



Then two M6 bolts and one M10 bolt and the hinge was fitted to the handle



And the M10 bolt using it as the pivoting



Then the welding











Ready for the hinge plate



Making the hinge on the rake





Adjusting the hinge plates before welding



Painted and ready for the handle to be fitted







Out I went and tested it out







does it work? Yes , will I be using it? No, it weighs too much to be raking it back and forth, It’d OK to just drag but too heavy for practical use

My next plan, I’m off to my local metal merchant tomorrow (Friday) and buy 4M of 20mm x 20mm box aluminiumand see how I get on with that

 

Lovely welding @Mollydog ! I've often fancied doing some - after all, it's a bit like soldering on steroids!
Shame it's too heavy. But surely you'll have to bolt the ali together as it won't weld without special treatment?
I suspect the reason you couldn't buy a handle online is length. Couriers charge a lot if items are very long.

 

thank you @JWK

@CarolineL. I'm sure youy could do it with a bit at a time and practice, I only bought my welder less than 2 months ago

From my local aluminium dealer, I bought a 5M x 25mmx25mm box tube

I got them to cut it for me 4 bars @930mm (as I’m using 1M rods to hold everything together) and the left over is going to be used for the sides of the rake, at the same time I was out I bought a metal (I think its a stainless steel) tub to use as a handle



First step was drilling the holes to the pole for the hinge to fit to the pole, looking at the hinge at home, I think it’s not sterdy enough for the job, I’ll have to see





The welder I have can weld aluminium but needs Argon shielding gas and skill and I don’t have either

In fact I’ve only had the welder less than a couple of months, before this I’ve never even held a welder in my hands ever.

I bought it off Static Arc’s own website, it was around £150 and with their discount code I got 10% off

(From their website) 4in1 multi-function MIG (gas and gasless), MMA & TIG lift operation

MIG 140D Inverter Welder 4in1 Synergic MMA TIG LIFT Gas Gasless ARC Welding 140A

Comes ready to weld with flux core wire and a cheap mask, but I bought an auto face mask, easy and leaves your left hand free

I’ve join a welders forum for tips, I’ve heard it said that flux welding is like using a hot glue gun

These 1M x M12 rods are whats going to hold everything together



These will be run through the tubes and with lock nuts hold everything together



Drilling the side tubing (both together)

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A dummy run with ordinary nuts to see how practical using the “made for” washers with the rods, these are 15mm too large and cutting them to size was going to be time consuming so in the final build I used smaller rounded washers with the lock nuts





The lock nuts & washers I used



If anything I must have tonnes of nuts & bolts kicking around





All the tubes being fitted together





Cut off the ears to the side tubes



Measured for the centre for the hinge



This hinge is for sure on the weak side, I’ll see if it lasts longer than a day





This is where I’m at with my second attempt at a lawn rake

Good news with the top soil, I got a text message this afternoon saying he’ll be here in the morning (Saturday)

So I’ll have my work cut out this weekend moving the soil from the 7 bags on my driveway to the back garden

 

The kind people from Bourne with the top soil arrived yesterday morning and in no time had unloaded 7 bags of good looking Fen soil, the sun was shining and no sign of rain in the air (how wrong was I)





One barrow load didn’t look like much, I have many more to bring to the back garden on my own



Slowly progressing



This Fen soil does look rather good rich quality







I marked the pegs 50mm and 100mm up from the screws marking the level to the edge boards











This is three bags of top soil spread over the topsoil & grit











This is as far as I’ve managed to get to by this evening, I managed to move 3 bags of topsoil to the back garden, if it wasn’t for the rain yesterday afternoon and this morning, I’d have managed to have moved 4 bags



Only 4 more bags to move now

 

That soil looks good @Mollydog and I'm impressed by the tool wall in your workshop!

 

@CarolineL Thank you for your kind words

That image is only showing part of the tool wall, this shows the complete side of that tools wall



And this is the back wall



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Some of these images were taken before I got in a professional electrician to do all the wiring and produce a certificate to please the local council





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As can be seen above the tools is my Chinese diesel heater for the winter months gets it’s diesel from a 205Lt drum sitting just outside the garage at the back



Before filling the drum up with diesel



And have a carbon monoxide sensor at the prescribed distance from the heater







at the opposite side (door/entrance side) of the garage is my extractor fan, comes in handy when welding or having the car engine running (if the engine is running I’ll attach the extension aluminium pipe to the car’s exhaust pipes)





I’m hoping to be moving more topsoil to the back garden tomorrow if it stops raining long enough