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From lawn to flower bed

Rhiannon29Rhiannon29 Posts: 3
in Tools and techniques
hi. I want to remove my lawn and replace with a cottage garden style flower bed. My lawn is currently mainly moss and clover and very dry and compact. What is the best way for me to remove it and improve the soil for a flower bed?

Posts

  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    First scrape off the grass. I mark out  brick sized sections with a half moon. You don't  need to go deeper than an inch and then slice horizontally under it to remove the 'brick'.
    I then work the soil underneath to improve it. The turfs go upside down on the compost heap.
    This works for reasonably small areas that I nibble off my lawn  to make beds, but if you want to do it all at once, you'd probably have to hire something.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • Rhiannon29Rhiannon29 Posts: 3
    Thank you!  What would you suggest hiring? 
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    I haven't a clue!
    I've bumped your post so that someone else can hep.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • KT53KT53 Posts: 9,016
    You can hire turf stripping machines, but how big an area of turf do you want to remove?
  • hogweedhogweed Posts: 4,053
    Depending on how big your lawn is, I would normally cut it into long strips, the width of a spade, with a half-moon edger. I then use my spade to slice the grass off as thinly as possible, rolling it up as I go. Turf is quite heavy so factor that in to the size of your rolls. Then stack it out of the way to break down. Go back over the area removing little bits you have missed. Dig over, adding lots of compost, manure, extra grit if on clay. If buying in compost and manure, use one 50-70litre bag of manure to 4 50-70litre bags of compost. Those 5 bags would cover about 4-5 sq metres, roughly roughly. Make sure you have removed all perennial weeds from the ground. 
    'Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement' - Helen Keller
  • Rhiannon29Rhiannon29 Posts: 3
    This is great thank you everyone for your help!
  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,889
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4emMe02XJT0
    I've used one of these ( it had just been returned to the hire shop by a Mr A. Titchmarsh)
    Devon.
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