Order to do my garden?

Dan-Dan

Hi All

Some advice please

I have a garden that did have with the previous owners , a horse kept in the garden and various animals , grass was very meadowy and poor , so have removed massive thistles etc and laid DPC over it for the winter , been down about a month now and seems to be killing the grass slowly

Its about 15 meters x 10 , in a kind of quadrant shape , we intend a small patio filling a corner and a concrete base for the log store

What order should i be doing these things , patios first or rotivate first then lay top soil , then patios , then turf?

Any help very much appreciated (and should i wait till spring?)

Cheers

DaftyDuck

Welcome back to the World of Gardening!

The membrane will kill the grass better (if needed) when the grass is trying to grow in the spring. May not need to wait if it dies anyway.

I'd crack on over winter as, if you get the topsoil sorted by march, things will grow faster than fast.

Get the patios laid now - no reason to rotavate their area.

I'd rotovate in winter, dropping the membrane for a while, and let the harsh frosts get at the weeds remaining in the soil. Get drainage sorted before laying turf .... or save a fortune and use seed! From March, you'll get a green lawn in two to three months, and it may last the summer better. If you do turf, ensure the under bed soil is well draining, lay turf and fill cracks with soil using a brush. Water well over summer.

So, I'd do all the physical prep over the cold winter, ready to lay grass late March (or sow early March).

Must have been a right diddy horse!

Dan-Dan

Hi mate , hope all is well , been a while , been manic my end , no time to sit on the pc 9 to 5 anymore!

So whip up the dpc and get on with patio laying and rotavating?

Its not even at all so i think i could be needing a fair amount of top soil.......


the horse was a biggun , no joke , along with giant rabbits and rescue dogs

DaftyDuck

Ah, any extra-fertile areas of greenness? You may not want to rotavate too deep!

Yeah, main problem of working over the wetter winter months (aside from the cold, the wet, the numbness and all) is compacting the soil when it's wet, particularly if it's a bit heavy and clay-rich.

But, if you can be ready to grow stuff from March, it'll be fully green by May, and you'll be a year ahead. So, I'd get mittens for Christmas, and crack on with the building work.

Just be wary of cementing in very cold spells, or when there's total rain approaching.

You will make a real mess over the winter, be warned. But, it'll all recover so much quicker next spring.

glasgowdan

A horse plus other animals in a 10x15m garden?!

I'd do the patio and then work the ground around it, but be aware the patio will get mucky. New turf will get damaged by landscaping work, and with the patio already there you can lay the grass neatly up to the edge. Don't rotovate the ground before doing the patio.

Dan-Dan

Thanks chaps , appreciate it , recommended local boyo is going to help with the patios , and ill be pulling up the dpc in a few days ready to crack on

phoebe1989seb

Dan-Dan wrote: »

Thanks chaps , appreciate it , recommended local boyo is going to help with the patios , and ill be pulling up the dpc in a few days ready to crack on

Nothing to add, but nice to see you back Dan......was wondering how you were getting on

Dan-Dan

phoebe1989seb wrote: »

Nothing to add, but nice to see you back Dan......was wondering how you were getting on

Hi Phoebe , getting there slowly , good job theres a good pub in the village is all i can say!

Hope all is well with you :beer:

Dan-Dan

More questions guys , so i am in the process of pulling the mebrane up , what grass there is, is grey and lifeless , does this mean its dead, it looks dead but what do i know....

So if i arrange the two hard areas , do i just trample over whats left of the grass and let our boots do some of the work , then dig up top layer when they are done ?

I have a skip coming for our kitchen , do i need to dispose of the top layer of manky meadow grass before rotovating?

Cheers

Dan-Dan

quick bump!

glasgowdan

Dan-Dan wrote: »

More questions guys , so i am in the process of pulling the mebrane up , what grass there is, is grey and lifeless , does this mean its dead, it looks dead but what do i know....

So if i arrange the two hard areas , do i just trample over whats left of the grass and let our boots do some of the work , then dig up top layer when they are done ? I'd dig down a few inches where the hard features are going to be so they can be laid properly, level etc

I have a skip coming for our kitchen , do i need to dispose of the top layer of manky meadow grass before rotovating? No. You can rotovate this in, but I'd spray it with glyphosate first to make sure it's dead. If you rotovate and turf without killing it you'll find clumps of thick coarse grass growing through your new lawn one day.

Cheers

Just my thoughts