total refurb

i dont think the soil is in great condition thats why i was going to add compost, should i skip the compost and just add fertiliser, rotavate, rake, add topsoil then the turf? ive already purchased seaweed fertiliser and a drum of chicken manure pellets, will i need to get some blood fish bone or will this do?

 

Grass is tough Pearse you don't need all the fertiliser. I said in my earlier post if you use it - it will make it put on top growth and not concentrate on getting it's roots down. Compost, seaweed, chicken pellets and blood, fish, bone are all fertilisers and the lawn doesn't need all this to get going. Personally, I wouldn't feed at all until next spring when it's established. But a layer of topsoil, not too deep, might help.

 

how hard is it to grow a lawn from seed? and what sort of timescale would i be looking at?

 

It's not hard to grow grass from seed, but preparation takes time and you've already done most of that. Once the seed is sown it takes about two weeks for it to show. If you were to sow now you would probably have a decent lawn in two to three months. But until it's established you won't be able to use it.

Personally I think you get a better quality lawn when sown from seed.