Rebuilding lawn/soil after house renovations

bobcarolgees36

Hello everyone,

Anyone has some advice for me please.

I have a small garden about 25m2. We recently had house renovations and the garden was basically a building site.

Half of the garden has sand, bits of concrete etc. on top of it. How can I prepare it for a lawn? I was thinking of just digging up the top couple of inches but what would I put on it then?

The other half used to have concrete which I got rid of, now I have a 10 m2 square hole with a depth of 20 cm. What do I do with that? Dig it up, turn it over and then order some more earth?

Thanks for any advice.

Dave Humby

Have you considered doing away with a lawn? With the ground conditions you describe plus what looks like a fairly shady environment with high walls, buildings and trees all nearby, I think I would be tempted to look at a hard landscaping scheme with some planting in your raised bed at the rear to soften it. Maybe some container planting too.

bobcarolgees36

Thanks for the comment. We would really like some grass. About 75% of the lawn area gets pretty good sun, the rest Ill probably put some shady plants down in pots or something with some slabs of concrete for them to sit on.

You think the soil is too far gone for grass/lawn?

Dave Humby

It’s difficult to tell from the picture. Grass itself doesn’t need a huge depth to grow in (assuming you don’t want a bowling green) but if you have a shallow top soil on top of a ‘poor’ subsoil you need to give some thought to what that is made up of. If it’s impermeable (concrete, compacted stone etc) then you’ll have a bog in winter and a lawn that dries up super quick in summer. 

In terms of re-establishing your lawn, then get it level, ensure you ‘heel-in’ or roll the new top soil or it will sink later on. Get a springtine rake and give the existing area a good scrape in a few directions. That will get the thatch / crud out and create a bed for the seed. Apply your chosen seed (some are more tolerant to shade if needed). Tread the seed in and put a very thin layer of topsoil over that to help germination and keep the birds at bay.

Make sure you keep it moist with a fine spray every day for a few weeks, especially in these very dry climate most of the country is currently seeing. 

bobcarolgees36

Great thanks, I'll give that a go.