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Turfing Advice - Total Gardening noobie

ourhaloourhalo Posts: 3
in Tools and techniques
Hi All,

First of all my name is James and my other half and I have recently bought our first ever house (Yay) the garden came with slabs through out (I will update some pictures) I have removed all the slabs and most of the scrubs which had deep roots. I have read up quite abit about laying new turf but there some areas that grey to me such as the following

- Stones that are currently in the dirt, various sizes (but not to big) being told they all need to be removed and another person says no you don't 
- Weeds that are in the dirt (Removed what I can by hand) but is there something I can spray down to get rid of them properly before I start to think about buying the turf and top soil ?

I haven't turned the soil yet on some parts of the garden, only the bits where I have been digging to remove roots.

any advice is welcomed thank you so much all :) 


thanks all in advance :)

Posts

  • Dave HumbyDave Humby Posts: 1,145
    Welcome to the forum and good luck with your new garden!

    Weedkiller is only effective when it comes into contact with the weed foliage. Spraying the remaining roots or soil will have no positive impact. So, you can either carry on digging them out or give them a couple of weeks to regrow and then spray them and leave for a couple of weeks. You have some time in that late Sept into October, even November, is a good time to lay turf.

    As for stones then this is purely personal. What I would say is that the ground under your slabs is probably quite compacted and possibly of poor soil nutrient quality. Make you sure give it a good turnover to the depth of the fork and consider adding some soil improver / top soil of some kind before laying your turf. Get it nice and flat and heel in the new soil to prevent lumps and bumps in your new lawn. 
  • Butterfly66Butterfly66 Posts: 970
    Stones help with drainage and also warming up the soil in spring, they are part of the natural structure of soil. So don’t spend ages removing them just any large ones hat are lying on the surface which might cause lumps and bumps in your newly laid lawn.
     If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”—Marcus Tullius Cicero
    East facing, top of a hill clay-loam, cultivated for centuries (7 years by me). Birmingham
  • ourhaloourhalo Posts: 3
    thank you both for the information so far,

    So would you say the following steps for me are roughly correct ?

    1. Carry on removing the larger stones, other roots that I can see and outlining what sort of garden I would like
    2. Turn over the soil throughout removing more of the weed I find and then let it sit for couple of weeks for me to spray the growing roots ?
    3. once happy with majority of roots removed rake the ground adding some top soil to level it all out to what i want ?
    4. do the penguin walk throughout the garden making sure its all compact down 
    5. is it as simple of buying turf the next day and laying that day also?
    I have probably got all the above the wrong way round but this is the part I have come stuck with in which order to start

    thanks again all much appreciated.
  • LoxleyLoxley Posts: 5,698
    I can already visualise how much nicer it's going to look with a lawn!

    One thing to add to the advice above, think about adding a mowing strip around the edge of the lawn... a row of slabs or bricks flush with the grass surface. Then you can now right up to the edge much easier.
    "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour". 
  • Dave HumbyDave Humby Posts: 1,145
    ourhalo said:
    thank you both for the information so far,

    So would you say the following steps for me are roughly correct ?

    1. Carry on removing the larger stones, other roots that I can see and outlining what sort of garden I would like
    2. Turn over the soil throughout removing more of the weed I find and then let it sit for couple of weeks for me to spray the growing roots ?
    3. once happy with majority of roots removed rake the ground adding some top soil to level it all out to what i want ?
    4. do the penguin walk throughout the garden making sure its all compact down 
    5. is it as simple of buying turf the next day and laying that day also?
    I have probably got all the above the wrong way round but this is the part I have come stuck with in which order to start

    thanks again all much appreciated.
    You need to wait for the weed foliage to appear. Systemic weedkillers do no work on just exposed roots. I expect you'll be keen to get on with it but a little patience in prep might be best. As I said late Sept onwards is still a good time to get your turf down. Lower temps and rainfall will be there.

    Alternatively you can get skip any further weeding and once the turf has taken you can spray the inevitable weed growth next spring. You won't rid the soil of everything regardless of how diligent you are.
  • ourhaloourhalo Posts: 3
    yet again thanks Dave and everyone else for info so far! I have one question, I am currently removing bush stumps but there is one or 2 stumps that I have had to cut the root to remove it (stumps are pulled out but i have had to leave a root in the ground) because they go into an akward area, is there anything I can buy to kill that root or will that be sufficient enough ? thanks!
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    Depending on how big it is, there's a product called SBK Brushwood which is for killing roots/stumps etc.
    I doubt you'd need it if the stump has been removed though, depending on what the original tree/shrub is. Do you know?
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
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