You could rotovate the whole thing. Gives you a blank canvas. Then decide if you want to make say raised beds and grass or whatever. I did this once in a garden I had which was mostly lawn. Hired a diesel rotovator and it was sorted.
You could rotovate the whole thing. Gives you a blank canvas. Then decide if you want to make say raised beds and grass or whatever.
I like the blank canvas idea. I'm not overly fussed how much work I have to put in now,I have nothing but time on my hands.
Also absolutely skint right now so wont be hiring anything.
Should I stick with what I'm doing, dig a bunch of earth up, sieve it back into where I dug it from?
In my mind it went like this, dig earth, sift stones, weeds, roots out, put the sifted earth back in, level it out so it's all even & flat then throw some grass seed on top.
That's not a bad plan then. Remove the larger lumps of rubble and get rid of the builders sand. Try to keep the top soil at the top. If you dig deep enough that the soil colour changes, keep that to the bottom and avoid mixing with the top soil as much as possible.
The technical consideration is 'grading'. You should consider that the lawn ought not to be totally level, it should have at least some slope away from your house. Else in winter the water could cause damage to brickwork etc. I saw you have the patio already, but it is still worth the effort to build in a gentle slope away from your house.
The last (somewhat annoying bit) is newly prepared soil for lawns needs some time to 'settle'. Once you dig it all, if you just level the top, in a few months it will settle and become uneven again. So if you can give it some time to settle before the final levelling (keeping it free of weeds) you'll get the best result in the end and a nice easy to mow lawn.
I'm a bit puzzled why you'd want to dig up the path to the shed and back garden gate. You will still need a path won't you? Lawns get very soggy and muddy in the winter if you keep walking on them. If you are thinking of putting slate chippings down in the narrow beds, be warned it's fairly expensive to buy. You could think about dumping the builders sand from the existing path under where you want the slate chippings to go, which would get rid of the probem of where to put it, or you could just pile it up somewhere in case you decide you need some after all! Good luck anyway.
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Also absolutely skint right now so wont be hiring anything.
Should I stick with what I'm doing, dig a bunch of earth up, sieve it back into where I dug it from?
In my mind it went like this, dig earth, sift stones, weeds, roots out, put the sifted earth back in, level it out so it's all even & flat then throw some grass seed on top.
The technical consideration is 'grading'. You should consider that the lawn ought not to be totally level, it should have at least some slope away from your house. Else in winter the water could cause damage to brickwork etc. I saw you have the patio already, but it is still worth the effort to build in a gentle slope away from your house.
The last (somewhat annoying bit) is newly prepared soil for lawns needs some time to 'settle'. Once you dig it all, if you just level the top, in a few months it will settle and become uneven again. So if you can give it some time to settle before the final levelling (keeping it free of weeds) you'll get the best result in the end and a nice easy to mow lawn.
You will still need a path won't you? Lawns get very soggy and muddy in the winter if you keep walking on them.
If you are thinking of putting slate chippings down in the narrow beds, be warned it's fairly expensive to buy. You could think about dumping the builders sand from the existing path under where you want the slate chippings to go, which would get rid of the probem of where to put it, or you could just pile it up somewhere in case you decide you need some after all! Good luck anyway.
How deep should I dig then & how vigilant should I be with sieving?
@Lizzie27
So I'd already taken up some of the slabs to extend the patio as the builders used the same slabs for both.
Was planning on putting down a new path at some point, something smaller & less ugly.