Planting new grass in garden

thescouselander

My house has a brick paved garden which I want to replace with grass. I dug up some of the paving bricks and underneath there seems to be a mixture of stones and a sandy substence (although I dont think it is actually sand).

Presumably I will need to spread some topsoil over the garden before I can plant grass but how deep does the topsoil need to be? Also, where would be the best place to get soil from at the lowest price?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Nile

Hello thescouselander

I'll move your thread to the 'Greenfingered' board, where it should get more views and responses.

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere(please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com"]abuse@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL].

Regards

Nile

Noah'strolly

Wow, a whole garden, you have got your hands full! I've just removed a patio area, well reremoved actually. The first time I took up the slabs and a little sandy rubble, put top soil ontop and sowed grass seed. It seemed to be growing quite well but in the summer it dried out very quickly and never really thrived. I recently decided to dig the whole thing up and get all the rubble out ( it went about 25cm). I made about 20 trips to the tip with bootsful of hardcore in large plastic planters and am expecting 2 tonnes of topsoil from our local garden centre tomorrow. I looked on the internet and 1 tonne was about £70 but our garden centre was that price for 2. Incidentally there's a recent thread here about topsoil. I would expect you'll need a skip for your hardcore and I'd recommend digging it all out.

rizla01

I am assuming that by stones you mean shingle (10 mm or 20 mm).

Good for drainage if you are in a wet area. For the soil 2" would be the bare mimimum if you are turfing it - they come with a decent amount of soil already.

Do you intend to stay there for a long time? If so you should put 2 Inches of sand and then two inches of soil before turfing or 4 inches of soil if you seed. The surface must be rolled so that you don't leave footprints when you carefully walk over it. (That is how I was told by a bowling green expert, BTW)

Grass should ideally be laid (Turf or seed) NOW or in Oct/Nov or be prepared to leave the hose on for a week or so and overnight for the first couple of days. Covering with a sheet of polythene keeps birds off the seed, keeps moisture and warmth around the new seedlings.

Choose a rye grass mix if it is to be used. Grass is a plant and not all varieties appreciate being walked on. The best looking lawns are the most impracticle.

thescouselander

Thanks for the quick replies. By stones I mean pebbles of varying dimensions from 5mm to 50mm, this is mixed in with a bit of clay/gravel/sand and this goes down a long way - I dug down over 12 inches today and it was the same all the way down.

rizla01

Sounds like a one time river/sea bed.
Is this possible in relation to where you live?

thescouselander

rizla01 wrote: »

Sounds like a one time river/sea bed.
Is this possible in relation to where you live?

No, I dont think that is possible. Apparently the garden used to have grass in it until the previous owner had the block paving put in because he didn't like walking across the grass when he was walking to the house from the garage. Whatever is underneath the paving was put there and compacted by the person who layed the paving. It could be a mixture of hardcore and sand.

Poppycat

I just got some Ryegrass from Morrisons and some grass food, I gather its best to sow from April onwards or feed for that matter according to the instructions.

They had some turf on offer the other day at B&Q I passed on that, but went today and it had gone just when I could do with some to patch our lawn up.

rizla01

Poppycat wrote: »

I just got some Ryegrass from Morrisons and some grass food, I gather its best to sow from April onwards or feed for that matter according to the instructions.

Instructions ALWAYS say from April onward to avoid frost.

Depends where you live, really.

Here in Essex, I would spread seed now as the weather cycle is changing and frost not much of a threat.

Once again, if you get a piece of polythene, 10x10 then treat that size of lawn and cover with poly. leave for 7-10 days and then move to another bit of lawn and repeat.