Ground preparation for turf/seed

Hello everyone,

Having moved into our new house I'm in the the process of clearing an area of weeds/undesirables in the garden that we'd like to turn into a lawn area.

Below is how the ground is looking after the first pass of digging up the weeds and some bushes, and probably a worst case view in terms of stones etc:



I think my question is, what are the next steps in prepping the ground? I'm assuming I need to remove the large stones and level the area etc - but do I need to add/remove anything else? Does it require top soil?

Many thanks in advance!

 

What you do next depends on what you want as a lawn. A nice level area to sit on and let the kids play on or a bowling green striped green thing of beauty. I

 

Thank you for the quick reply!

Oh, absolutely nothing special - just a level-ish area that'll look nicer than the jungle that was previously there; kids are more teenagers now and so less inclined to play in the garden :-(

 

It is still a good idea to sieve the soil before seeding or turfing as stones will always come to the surface and can damage mowers/strimmers etc. A long, hard, tedious job but worth it in the long run.

 

Be interesting to know how big an area you are looking to lawn ?
With the kids growing up perhaps they will be looking for a larger paved area for entertain their friends than all lawn ?

For preparing the lawn you have the labour force there already, ie the kids ! you just need to find the right inducement

For preparing the ground for turf or seed these videos might help.

However avoid the most obvious thing of hiring a rotavator as that will just chop all the weeds up into smaller bits, many of which will regrow and worsen the problem.
Weed removal by hand digging or using an effective and non presistant weedkiller before digging is the better way

 

To be honest I would just pick off the biggest pebbles and the one that looks like a lump of cement. Small to middling stones help with drainage. My soil has lots and however many you remove, there always seem to more working their way to the surface. If I come across a big one (the size of a large hen's egg or bigger) while planting something I'll chuck it under the hedge, but otherwise I leave them.

 

Thank you all for the advice. It's an area that is about 36m2 I'd guess - so will have to work out what the best incentive is for the kids!

Fortunately, already have some paved area - although that's a shocker too and so will be the next laborious job

Today's patch uncovered hundreds of bulbs - think I got most of them, but undoubtedly some will have slipped through.