Rotavator?

Melonade

Hello,

My garden is cracking me up sooo much I could cry. It's full of dandelions (sp?) and really needs digging over and re-turfing. The idea of doing this with a bad back just makes me feel worse!! Was thinking of hiring a rotavator thingy to give it a good going over. It's full of stones and batteries and other bits and bobs... not sure what the people who lived here before us were up to :eek:

Would a roravator be a good idea or do I have to get stuck in with a fork and spade?

I hate gardening in my own garden (although I've cleared it a lot since we've been here) but love doing bits in my Nan's garden because her's just needs maintaining lol

Lotus-eater

Stones and batteries, bad back? Personally I would stay well clear of a rotovator. And I wouldn't be worried about having a few dandelions in the lawn either. Mow it and sit on it with a glass of wine.

But that's just me, you want a whole load of work for a grassier lawn, go ahead

matt987106

i would have a go at a few weed and feed type treatments

alot less work

Melonade

If it was only a few dandelions I wouldn't be bothered... BUT it's full of them!! and I mean full, I'd say the dandelions out number the blades of grass

I had a go last year but due to my back and some family stuff I never quite got round to getting anywere with it. The OH would be in charge of the rotavator thingy and I can get my Dad in to help laying some turf

Just windered if anyone had used one before and thought it was a good idea/worked well?

globalds

Lidl had a cheap rotavator in stock a few weeks ago, might be worth checking to see if any where has any stock left near you.
A mate of mine has just used one to re-do his lawn, he used seed ....Said it was hard work and needed to go over it all a couple of times.

stumpycat

Hmmm... I'm not sure a rotovator would be that much help with loads of dandelions. I'm usually a fan of brute force & ignorance dig it out (in the case of dandelions with my trusty screwdriver) but if that's ruled out 'cos of your back, you could give it a few treatments of glyphosate to kill the roots, otherwise they'll just come through any turf or earth & seed you lay on top of them.

Good luck!

Farway

A rotovator will make a lot of lovely dandelion root cuttings, so where you had one you will have 10 or more ready to grow from the tap root

As suggested weed / feed is the answer, it is not a quick fix

Look on the bright side, St Georges day nearly here [23rd April], which is the tradition time to pick dandelion flowers for dandelion wine to drink on Christmas day

Go on, have a search online & enjoy your homegrown harvest at Christmas

You can also eat the young leaves in salad, have a search

And the ground up dried roots can make a sort of coffee, us older wartime rationing used to drink this when instant was not even invented

traceye

I would cut the heads off and get a sprayer and spray them with weed killer, they have just had good sprayers in Aldi £10 really good ones hope this helps

gardenroute

As a few of the others have said a rotovator is not the answer.A lot of the chopped-up dandelion roots will grow up through your new turf and you will be back to square one. Selective weedkillers can be used to kill the weeds and not harm the grass - as long as you don't cut the grass ~6 days either side of application. If it's going to leave patches of bare soil, you may need to give it a rake to remove dead material and break up the soil surface before sowing some grass seed. It might be worth bringing in some more soil to fill in any holes, etc in the lawn.
After that its just mowing on a regular basis.

Melonade

Thanks everyone :T

A big fat NO to the rotavator idea and know it's been spelt out for me I can see why it wouldn't be a good idea

Gonna have a scan round the garden centre for some pet friendly weed and feed or weed killer stuff and see how it goes from there. Suppose i can do a bit of digging too if I do little and often but I'm sooo impatient and want it done in a day lol.

thanks again

diable

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNu0sR89_BM