Anyone totally dug up "lawn" and laid fresh seed before?

af2909_2

As it says on the tin

I own the ground floor of a maisonette and upstairs (which is rented out) owns the garden to the front of the property. As it's a mess I've started to clean it up (with the permission of the owners:D) and was thinking of totally pulling up what little grass there is and starting fresh. Therefore if I'm correct:

I should start preparing now by pulling all weeds up and racking (is that how I spell it :eek:).

Then come end of the month put compost down and spread seeds (as per instructions on box) and water regularly until they germinate.

Has anyone used a thin layer of sand to protect seeds from being eaten, or should I just bite the bullet and put netting over it?

Thanks for your help :beer:

warmhands.coldheart

How large/small an area is it? Might be worth just laying the turf rolls rather than re-seeding. saves a lot of hassle ie. like the birds eating the seed, getting a nice even finish etc......

af2909_2

warmhands.coldheart wrote: »

How large/small an area is it? Might be worth just laying the turf rolls rather than re-seeding. saves a lot of hassle ie. like the birds eating the seed, getting a nice even finish etc......

Off the top of my head - I'd say around 15 - 20 m2 (maybe more - never tell I had a B at GCSE maths ) with a pathway and steps leading to the front doors. There's a soakway that runs into the lawn and as it's sloped it's washing quite a lot of mud away, so I'm planning to build a small wall between the slope to act as a flowerbed and to spread the "waterflow" around rather than dig the soakway up and fiddle with that

macman

Rather late in the season to reseed?

af2909_2

macman wrote: »

Rather late in the season to reseed?

I'd read that it was ideal to do it now as the conditions are ideal.

Although I'm tempted to move towards rolls of turf

aeb_2

I'd have a go with seed first, much more MSE. I bought seed from Wilkinson's. They have a choice of 'tough' or 'luxury' depending on the type of lawn you want.

I just raked and removed larger stones. I then left it a couple of weeks and raked again to remove all the small weed seedlings. Then with the help of my two year old triplets just scattered the seed all over, not too even as you can imagine. I raked it in a bit and trod it down all over. I didn't cover it at all - it was too big an area. after only about 3 weeks it looked green when looking from the house and after 6 weeks needed it's first gentle cut. I started in July after the apple tree had had it's June drop. By the time I needed to walk on it to pick up and pick the apples in late September it was a lawn.

ps - I wouldn't feed or you will be mowing for ever and ever

Have a go, you can always lay turf if it's a disaster

af2909_2

aeb wrote: »

I'd have a go with seed first, much more MSE. I bought seed from Wilkinson's. They have a choice of 'tough' or 'luxury' depending on the type of lawn you want.

I just raked and removed larger stones. I then left it a couple of weeks and raked again to remove all the small weed seedlings. Then with the help of my two year old triplets just scattered the seed all over, not too even as you can imagine. I raked it in a bit and trod it down all over. I didn't cover it at all - it was too big an area. after only about 3 weeks it looked green when looking from the house and after 6 weeks needed it's first gentle cut. I started in July after the apple tree had had it's June drop. By the time I needed to walk on it to pick up and pick the apples in late September it was a lawn.

ps - I wouldn't feed or you will be mowing for ever and ever

Have a go, you can always lay turf if it's a disaster

How often did you water it

Leif

September is the ideal time to sow a new lawn. Summer is too hot, spring is good too. Last October I finished digging ~60 square metres of garden, and sowed grass seed over 2/3, the rest being veg beds and a Medlar tree. It looks very good now.

You need to determine why the lawn is so poor. Is it compacted? Is it heavy clay, or very sandy?

You do not want to dig in weeds, you just spread them and make the problem worse. You are best to spray with glyphosate (buy concentrated stuff from ebay, it's much cheaper), do it now, the sooner the better. In fact for such a small area, just buy glyphosate and a 5L sprayer from a garden centre ASAP.

Having seen that my attempt to repair the lawn at the end of the garden was a success - it was a weed infested mess with a path made by an idiot, and empty disused septic tanks - I decided to redo the rest of the lawn (about 250 square metres more). I killed the weeds with glyphosate, waited a month, then rotavated down to about 6". Hiring a rotavator was £70 for the weekend including collection. I have spent the last month raking the surface and picking off dead moss and turf, and will reseed in September. I recommend you hire a tool to remove the top 1" of dead turf if you do rotavate, otherwise you'll have to pick it up dry turf for ages.

Leif

I should add that if you do not work out why the lawn is poor, you might waste money on seed/turf which subsequently dies.

af2909_2

Leif wrote: »

I should add that if you do not work out why the lawn is poor, you might waste money on seed/turf which subsequently dies.

I think it was just neglected over a period of years, and given that it was sloped and covered by growth (which has been considerably cut and will be gone in the next month or so). At least that what it seems like. There is grass growing on there so maybe there is hope