top soil - how deep?

nearly done straping back the gravel - yay!

I'm going to add a mix of the real top soil donated by my father in law with some peat free multi compost and possibly some garden centre bagged 'enriched' top soil.

Now how deep does the soil need to be? and after raking level (well levelish my garden in on a natural slope anyway), do I need to stomp it down before adding the grass seed? does the grass seed sit on top or do I rake it in?

all advice gratefully appreciated as I've never done this before, and being a front garden the look of it is really going to count

also with all the enrichments I'm adding would I need to add lawn fertiliser or is that just overkill? if I do need to add it, when do i do this?

 

Grass seed will grow just about anywhere - provided you have enough rain. My own lawn is looking great at the moment because of the cool damp summer weâ??ve had, even though itâ??s growing on flints, builderâ??s rubbish and tree roots. If we ever get a prolonged hot spell again (!), itâ??ll go the colour of Weetabix in a few weeks. You have the ideal opportunity to give your grass the resilience to survive this kind of stress and I reckon youâ??ll need a layer about 100-150mm deep of decent stuff, if itâ??s on top of subsoil. You wonâ??t need any extra fertiliser if you give it what you have in mind.

But youâ??ll need to consolidate the ground before sowing or youâ??ll end up with dips all over the place by the end of the winter. You just need to walk on it methodically and keep levelling out any dips. Some people leave the grass seed on the surface but this means it can be washed away by sudden heavy rain. I prefer to give it a very light raking, just to tease the surface a bit.

Youâ??ll also need to stop the birds eating it all. Some seed has a repellent coating but I wouldnâ??t trust it. Netting is the best protection if you can.

 

As Flinty has mentioned in his post but when walking take short steps and use your heel, it looks silly but it compresses the soil so you get a better level. Once youve walked over the soil just lightly rake over where you have any dips :thumb: