Building a new lawn

Hi guys I've recently bought a new house and the back garden was in a terrible state with trees and shrubs and very compacted areas of soil.
My aim is to have a lovely lawn with a slight slope but smooth in any given direction.
This will be used by my family so won't be a ornamental one.

So far I have used a stump grinder and erased any traces of the trees. I sprayed roundup non residual over the entire lawn area 4 weeks ago and made sure everything was dead.

I've got a rotavator on hire untill lunch time and I've done 2 passes over the entire area and plan to do some more today to break the soil some more.

I understand I have to get the area impeccably smooth and perfect before laying any turf but I would appreciate any tips on what to do next to achieve the smoothness. The garden is around 140sqm tops.
I have been offered the use of a small digger to level it out some more then I aimed to buy 1-2 ton of good quality top soil and finish by hand over the top before laying any turf.

Am I heading in the right direction with this?

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner Car.crash. I intend to write a thread for this subject later in the year as lawns are quite a demanding subject.

Looking at your pictures suggests to me you have a sandy soil, is that correct please? I'll wait for your reply as it makes a difference to the procedure.

 

I wouldn't say it was too sandy but it's certainly not like clay.
I will get a close up picture tonight.

 

Thanks for the picture. I would say it's bordering on sandy so we'll go with that. If it was clay I would suggest digging in sand and gravel before laying the lawn to help keep the soil open, but that's not needed with sandy soil.

I would start by removing any larger stones that are left in the soil then level it. I don't know that you will be able to achieve that with a digger but I'll leave that to you. To smooth off the surface there isn't really an appropriate tool. Some members have used a ladder on it's side with ropes tied at each end and then they drag it across the surface. Once that's done firm it all down and rake over any patches that have dips or lumps then firm again. Lay your topsoil, level and firm and then slightly loosen the surface with a rake before laying your turf.

When laying the turves offset them on each row as if you were building a brick wall. I suggest that you don't buy cheap turf because the quality is usually bad. Good luck and can we see a progress picture or two please.

 

Well the ground is looking much better but I have a very small excavator arriving on Monday to get the soil level.
I don't get the time to finish it by hand.
It just needs lightly grading then I will pick all the stones again and add a few mm of screened topsoil and reseed end of summer when it all cools down.

Question is what seed to go for.
It will be used by the family and a dog once established.
I would prefer a lush green short lawn but I can't see that happening with the foot traffic so any links to what kind of seed I should be looking to buy.

 

That's looking much better. Have you changed your mind Car. crash? You said earlier you were turfing.

I would go for a general purpose seed, it's a mixed seed that caters for all uses and would be best for family traffic over it.

 

This was how it looked a few months ago.


We won't be going for turf due to costs and I feel we would get a better result with seed and I can always patch it up in the future if needed.
It just needs the top levelling and stone picking again.

I see many shops advertising seed but the options throw me with regards to the mix.
Don't want to pay a large amount for a basic product with a fancy label if that makes sense.

 

Seed always gives a better result than turf and you know exactly what you're getting. It's a long time since I actually replaced a lawn so I can't remember what seed I used. For patching I've used Evergreen general purpose, it's good seed but it doesn't come cheap when laying a whole lawn. I've just re-seeded a patch on my front lawn with Tesco's seed, I've not used it before so I'll have to wait and see how it looks.

@fat controller is re-seeding at the moment. Perhaps he can suggest what to use.

 

There are some great turf and some great choices of seed available. Several turf companies note the type of plant used and for high quality seed you need to move towards trade and not domestic aimed seed.
Some are now more adapt at stress situations and are resilient to disease compared to the more traditional seeds. However the price for the better quality seeds are not cheap.

 

Well this is pretty much finished now.
Small bit of grading left but the worst is over.
Just need to pick a seed and wait till end of summer.