Gardening.ie

Hi all
Will be moving house shortly and the lawn is in a bit of a mess,
I dont have the time to dig it but I am just wondering if I covered it with topsoil and then put down some grass seed would that work ?

Thanks

Hi Ciaran

Wecome to the forum......

Starting a new lawn is pretty time consuming (a bit like moving house)

Putting soil onto a neglected patch might cause more work in the long run, especially if the ground has been compacted so the water doesn't run through it.

The topsoil will no doubt have stones in it so these will need to be removed as well before a good seed bed is formed. The soil will then need raking and levelling.

What is the lawn like now, is there drainage? Is there a lot of weeds and thick undergrowth? How big is the area? Could you send in a photo?

Sorry for asking so many questiond but each site will be different!!


Cheers

Ian

Hi Ian
Sorry I dont have any pics of the garden,
While their is grass on both the front and back gardens it may not be the best.
To be honest I am looking for any easy way out of laying a lawn.
Thought I might get away with putting topsoil on top of the present lawn.

Thanks
Ciaran

Hi Ciaran

If you only have a small area and you can add the soil on manually with a wheelbarrow, it might be possible to improve it that way. Heavy diggers and trailers will compact the ground though and cause bad drainage.

I have found that there isn't really an easy option when it comes to creating a new lawn. It's the raking and levelling that takes the time to get a good seed bed. When I did lanscaping I found it was one of the hardest things to charge for as you can't really see the work that goes into it.

Maybe you could try to improve what you already have? When the ground dries a bit try aerating the ground with a fork then brushing in sharp sand. You could rake the dead thatch out and do a bit of re-seeding. I suppose it depends on how big your garden is though!

Cheers

Thanks for the help Ian.
Will keep you posted of my progress.

Thanks again
Ciaran