Laurel Hedge and Lawn

LocalLad

Hi, I want to plant a laurel hedge and a new lawn. The length of the hedge is approx 50m and I plan on a plant every 2ft. This works out roughly 85 plants. Locally I have found small potted plants (approx 18-24inches) for £2.99/plant.
In relation to the lawn, I have an area of roughly 1000m squared which I have had top soiled (unscreened) and plan to sow in the coming weeks. The soil is very soft and needs to be compacted. I plan to sow, the compact the ground with a water filled roller, am I on the correct track? Will the ground firm up as the grass begins to root? I have been advised that 25Kg of grass seed would be sufficient.
Basically, any advice would be very welcome from those of you with experience. Thanks.

J_J_Carter

IIRC you should firm the ground by walking on your heels back and forth, level the ground, rake off stones etc. then seed and lightly rake over.

TBH, I'd blow the budget and get turf, far better results. But leave it a few a weeks as August is too dry and the grass won't root unless you water a lot

LocalLad

J_J_Carter wrote: »

IIRC you should firm the ground by walking on your heels back and forth, level the ground, rake off stones etc. then seed and lightly rake over.

TBH, I'd blow the budget and get turf, far better results. But leave it a few a weeks as August is too dry and the grass won't root unless you water a lot

I wish that was an option, but it's not.

On the water front, rain will take care of that, and I will water when it doesn't. I don't envisage having much watering to do...

Mojisola

LocalLad wrote: »

On the water front, rain will take care of that, and I will water when it doesn't. I don't envisage having much watering to do...

You're lucky if that's the case. All the grass round our way is parched and yellow.

boyse7en

While grass is growing from seed it will need regular watering. Even with the current weather it is unlikely that your lawn will get enough water from rainfall alone to establish itself properly.

You need to compact the soil before sowing.

fwor

LocalLad wrote: »

The length of the hedge is approx 50m and I plan on a plant every 2ft. This works out roughly 85 plants. Locally I have found small potted plants (approx 18-24inches) for £2.99/plant.

You can halve the cost of the hedge by buying bare-rooted later in the year - e.g. £1.38/plant here, though you have to add a bit for postage.

My experience is that you can expect to get a few more failures with bare rooted than pot grown, but laurel is vigorous enough that this should not be a problem. If you want to stick with pot grown then it's still less than £2/plant - though a bit smaller than the ones you've found.