Redo complete garden

bretts

I have 120 square meter of garden area, it has hedges on the about 15% of the side, and rest is grass, the area is quite uneven and not safe for kids to run, I am planning to redo it completely.

I called in a guy who said we have two options

1) Cut the grass to smallest possible and then put compost on top,roll it and lay new grass on top

2) Cut the turf completely, rotivate and roll and put new compost and then lay new turf.

1st option is cheap and second is expensive but which is the way forward?

I will get an extension done may be in a year or two and i will loose a little bit of garden turf but not massive amount but should I hold this till the extension is done or just do it, I am just fearing that builders might ruin my grass when doing all the work.

I_have_spoken

Can you post a pic?

bambos

bretts wrote: »

I have 120 square meter of garden area, it has hedges on the about 15% of the side, and rest is grass, the area is quite uneven and not safe for kids to run, I am planning to redo it completely.

I called in a guy who said we have two options

1) Cut the grass to smallest possible and then put compost on top,roll it and lay new grass on top

2) Cut the turf completely, rotivate and roll and put new compost and then lay new turf.

1st option is cheap and second is expensive but which is the way forward?

I will get an extension done may be in a year or two and i will loose a little bit of garden turf but not massive amount but should I hold this till the extension is done or just do it, I am just fearing that builders might ruin my grass when doing all the work.

We have a 35ft garden which is also grassed. We are about to have our extension done which will take our garden to 20ft in length 4.25 meters wide so very small space left. We are waiting until the building work is done before we do anything with the garden as the builders will be in and out digging and rolling their wheelbarrow across (using boards but that will kill the grass anyway) we are going all hard standing and having gravel once the extension is finished. I did consider AstroTurf but I don't like the look of it.

bretts

Thanks for your replies, sorry did not check here.
I will post a pic tonight, the right side of the garden was full of hedges and shrubs, I have got rid of all of them but its a massive slope upwards from the garden, I think the owners had put a lot of soil and compost there, so I am having to move a lot of soil into the skip but it has a lot of bulbs in it may be of tulips or whatever, I am so much in two minds over whether I should do it up now or later once the builders are done with there work, but if i leave it dig on one side, I am sure the plants or weeds will come back up again in a year or two. Is there a way to completely kill that part of lawn, I do have xyphosate as I had got it to kill some of the bigger trees from there.
I am an amateur gardener and have no knowledge and would hence need some help in this.
What I plan to do is put a fence on that side and then may be leave it like that for a year till I have my extension done but I do not want to be digging again to get rid of weeds as my garden is full of it, especially that side, after removing all the trees, it has been taken over by weeds. The rest of the area where the grass is, I dont know whats going on there too as there is water logging in the middle of the grass, I thought water would go through into the soil but its not. I really do think looking at all this that there is no hope of salvaging the garden, just kill and start new, but then either i loose this summer with that same old garden or redo it and then see it get ruined again by builders, if not all of it then some of it. I will be using a turf cutter to get rid of all the grass, and then rotivate it, if i do go ahead with redoing the lawn but what if i just spread seeds, which might be cheaper than getting the turf bought online?

bretts

Sorry about getting back late. I am uploading some pics

http://postimg.org/image/gp93rvhtj/

http://postimg.org/image/lvb0nw5br/

http://postimg.org/image/afs15xr07/


http://postimg.org/image/f69zod793/

http://postimg.org/image/xdxmxrvnb/

http://postimg.org/image/nk5gbivhz/

http://postimg.org/image/6fols84jb/

http://postimg.org/image/5t8j51i47/

http://postimg.org/image/e0jcyyinr/

arbrighton

There's very little point paying out for turf and just getting it established only for builders to tramp all over it, dig through it, stack bricks on it etc.

The grass you have is ok- just rake the dead out, feed it and it'll grow back ok. Even as it is, it's a million times better than the 80% moss, 10% horsetail, 10% grass when we purchased and 90% mud after the extension... It doesn't look that uneven either. Depending on the age of children, I'd be fine with them playing on it.

Sort the fencing, bit of cheap and cheerful bedding in the borders, feed the grass and rake the thatch out, done.

And the reason quote 1 is cheap is that's cutting corners. You get what you pay for

arbrighton

And plus, weeds regrow unless there is something else in their place. As I keep telling my husband, weeding is an on going, iterative process.

bretts

arbrighton wrote: »

There's very little point paying out for turf and just getting it established only for builders to tramp all over it, dig through it, stack bricks on it etc.

The grass you have is ok- just rake the dead out, feed it and it'll grow back ok. Even as it is, it's a million times better than the 80% moss, 10% horsetail, 10% grass when we purchased and 90% mud after the extension... It doesn't look that uneven either. Depending on the age of children, I'd be fine with them playing on it.

Sort the fencing, bit of cheap and cheerful bedding in the borders, feed the grass and rake the thatch out, done.

And the reason quote 1 is cheap is that's cutting corners. You get what you pay for

Thanks so much for the reply, I got Aftercut last year but that did not work, I have got fertiliser this year and will try that, is there anything in particular you think I should feed it with?

The garden on this side about 30 meters long was all full of hedges and bushes and have got rid of all of them, my plan is to concrete all this area on the side so I dont get any more weeds atleast on that side and yes a new fence too will come once the area is more I should say walkable as it was full of hedges and bulbs. My inital plan was to put wood chips but I am worried that the weeds or bushes might grow back again. Ideally I would not like to have concrete there but just this fear is forcing me to put it on. Is there anyway I can make sure nothing grows out from there and then I can put wood chips instead of concrete, I will put a weed control fabric though.

arbrighton

Oh it's just weeds, a bit of work and they're dealt with. I wouldn't go as far as concreting over to avoid weeds. Our garden is larger than yours, and close to a lot of 'wild' land but I wouldn't dream of concreting over. Unfortunately even with membrane, weeds will grow.

I'm a lawn novice myself- less than a year since it was laid. I'm good with plants in borders (and weeds). Aftercut won't remove the dead stuff, that requires man power with a rake.

I_have_spoken

That's quite a job, what with the dead grass, broken down and missing fences, rubbish and tarmac paths. I'd budget for £2,000 to get the garden looking decent.

bretts

I_have_spoken wrote: »

That's quite a job, what with the dead grass, broken down and missing fences, rubbish and tarmac paths. I'd budget for £2,000 to get the garden looking decent.

I am actually doing this all up and hence the mess, the fence was done I dont know how many years ago but there were hedges there which was covering all the broken fences. I have got rid of hedges and dug in to get rid of as many roots as possible, plan is to put glyphosate once and put the weed control fabric and then either concrete to make sure all those hedges which I have taken out never come back up or put wood chips which is what I really prefer, but going down the route of concrete is a little forced step also due to the fact that the neighbour's garden is full of weeds and they never mow it down or do anything to it, its just an overgrown mess, may be the reason old owner just put these hedges. The concrete fences are quite expensive but once in they will last quite some time hence going that route. The old fence is not even a fence, just wood stuck to the bollards which separate my garden from the neighbours. Is there a way I can put something between my fence and those remaining hedges to minimise the damage to the new fence I put as I know the neighbour will never bother to trim any of the hedges they have on there garden and it will all ultimately damage my fence.