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When is the best time to level and turf my garden?

viper

By Viper

South Yorkshire, United Kingdom

When is the best time to clear level and turf my back garden. After being in this property for two yrs I'm desperate for it to be safe for my children to play in. Is using a rotavator wise.




Answers

 

I'd do it in March, early April. You will be clear (or should be!) of heavy frosts and there will be a bit of rain to get it going

1 Feb, 2008

 

You could certainly do the preparation as soon as the weather allows and lay turf from the end of this month if weather is OK in your area. You don't really need to rotavate, as this goes rather too deep. Just dig over lightly, then you'll need to rake the area flat, removing any stones and weeds. Lay the turves brick-like, offset, and lastly trim off the ends. When we laid turf in our back garden, we left the final edging with a half-moon edge cutter (in a curve) until the turf had 'taken'. This worked well and didn't disturb the laid turves. Good luck!

1 Feb, 2008

 

hi yes i agree with what andrea and sprizt have said, but don't forget to overlap the strips a little, by this i mean just by about 1/2" as they can shrink a little. and also lay unevenly - hard to explain but a bit like building a brick wall so that you don't end up with lines across as well as down. hope this helps.

1 Feb, 2008

 

Thank you for responses they are very helpful. I've never attempted such a big job and not really sure were to start lol. The garden is currently very uneven n I'm contemplating ordering some top soil, to help level it once i've removed the grass n weeds

1 Feb, 2008

 

yes it is quite a job, if i were you i would enlist a bit of help, it is far easier if there are two of you doing it. i did a small area last year where we dug up an old shed base, it was quite a job. yes top soil would be a good idea, and another tip that i forgot to mention, once you have the soil level it is best not to tred on it while your laying the turf and you should'nt tred on new turf either, other wise you could end up with teletubby land (lumps and bumps! lol) what i did was got a big piece of plywood and laid it on the soil or turf you have already laid (depending which way you work) so that your wieght is evenly spred - this will also help with flattening it down. a bread knife is also handy if you need to cut into any corners ect.. but i would follow spriz advice where poss and leave what you can around the edges until it has settled a bit. good luck. you'll have to post a picture of the results when your done.

1 Feb, 2008

 

Yes, you must even up the ground, or imagine what your finished lawn will look like! A long piece of wood will help you to check your levels, even a spirit level if you've got one! How big is the area?

1 Feb, 2008

 

Sounds like a job for the Easter weekend to me :-)

1 Feb, 2008

 

do it in March ,that way hopefully the weater will be warmer and a bit drier so as you can rake youre soil to a fine tilth to enable you to lay youre turf to a level finish..GOOD LUCK

11 Feb, 2008

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