Just looking for a bit of advice on how to give this the best start. I've been going around digging up all the rocks and remove the large weeks from the root. I'm going to aerate is as best I can with a fork and I have some seed and top soil. I've seen some posts where the seed doesn't take and it's left patchy. I'm willing to play the long game but also willing to get stuck in! Any advice appreciated.
by FairAcanthocephala91
3 Comments
See what happens is, builders bury all kinds of rubble, then there is probably just an inch at most of topsoil on top. You can see from bthe garden level that it’s just thrown down. Grass won’t take, or sustain on it.
Rule here is do it right, or do it twice.
What I would do, is dig it out, go down at least 5 inches, fill back up with decent enrichd topsoil, level (not compact) and get down decent fresh cultivated grass rolls (not the stuff from hardware shops)
After two or three weeks of summer growth, you will see wonders. Young grass has no hope in these fresh build back gardens, you need to prepare the are proper and get down mature grass
Hope it works out
Just search the previous comments, this gets asked every week
There’s a culture of builders getting away with this here. Wish it would change.
That will be a lot of blood, sweat and tears- a one day job if you are organised though. You’ll need to clean out several inches from the top there (that’s a lot of debris unfortunately, so be prepared how you’ll move it). It looks dry as well so you’ll need something to break it up. Rent a rotavator if you can.
After that get a load of top soil (you’ll need more than your car can hold or what you think will be enough) and lump it down, rake it out evenly across the grass. Rent a lawn roller and flatten it. Throw a lot of seed down then and then walk over the seed and use the roller again. I see varying things from people who say you should then put more light soil down over the seed (to stop birds) but I wouldn’t bother personally, I also think it can impact sunlight which is important for germination.
Water it lightly at least twice daily for two weeks. The soil needs to be kept moist.
It’ll set you back probably €400 for soil and seed along with equipment rental unfortunately. You can probably get away with no having the roller if you don’t mind bumps. You’ll spend 5x that with a regular Gardner that will be hard to get at this time of year.
Be prepared that you might get great grass in year one but then a load of weeds and bare patches in year two. I think the soil in these new builds can be so bad that a DIY job will come unstuck eventually, it did for me anyway. In that case you’ll likely need to scarify, rake, put more soil down and overseed. That’s a year two issue though.