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Cleared area
jack.music
Posts: 5
Hi all, I was hoping for some advice...
I have just cleared an area at the bottom of my garden next to some woodland with the aim of reseeding the area with grass and meadow flowers to extend the lawn. However, once cleared I have found that the previous owners have placed black tight mesh plastic sheeting just below the surface and it seems a few inches below too. There are lots of surface roots which I can only determine come from neighbouring trees so am a bit reluctant to remove unless I'm worrying about nothing and it is fine to do this. There are a few beech trees close by so perhaps the roots are from these. The roots are no more than a couple of inches in diameter.
Would I need to pull up all plastic sheeting to seed a lawn here. My idea was to completely resoil the area over all of the roots with a soil / grass compost mix and then reseed with grass and meadow flowers seed. Would this work?
If not, do you have any ideas what I could do here. Your wisdom would be greatly appreciated as I am the king of novice gardeners!
All the best,
Jack
I have just cleared an area at the bottom of my garden next to some woodland with the aim of reseeding the area with grass and meadow flowers to extend the lawn. However, once cleared I have found that the previous owners have placed black tight mesh plastic sheeting just below the surface and it seems a few inches below too. There are lots of surface roots which I can only determine come from neighbouring trees so am a bit reluctant to remove unless I'm worrying about nothing and it is fine to do this. There are a few beech trees close by so perhaps the roots are from these. The roots are no more than a couple of inches in diameter.
Would I need to pull up all plastic sheeting to seed a lawn here. My idea was to completely resoil the area over all of the roots with a soil / grass compost mix and then reseed with grass and meadow flowers seed. Would this work?
If not, do you have any ideas what I could do here. Your wisdom would be greatly appreciated as I am the king of novice gardeners!
All the best,
Jack
0
Posts
If you'd never noticed it before, wasn't preventing growth, doesn't prevent drainage and tree roots have already grown through and over it - I'd just recover with soil and continue with my original plan.
Here are some snaps of the area and the roots. It was over grown before this with lots of nettles (roots removed) and other weeds. I have removed the top level of plastic sheeting but beneath all of this is another layer, perhaps why the roots are so close to the surface.
Thank you for your initial advice.
In my head, the plastic mesh looks something like:
If so, and it's extensive, perhaps it was some sort of grass protection mat. The heavy duty stuff is often used in overflow car parks, but I've seen thinner plastic membranes used in childrens play areas or chicken coops.
Being right at the end of the garden, a chicken coop or play area are both likely.
Alternatively, turf is often grown through 'turf mesh' which is claimed to be biodegradable. I've heard that this isn't always the case with cheaper brands. I was digging in my garden and found a very thin brown plastic mesh running through the roots of my turf. I pulled and it kept revealing more and more.
Perhaps move some soil and see how far the mesh runs. Test how strong it is and consider how hard it would be to remove. I doubt any damage on those roots would harm the tree long term. But, I'm pretty sure if you throw down some soil, a meadow mix will do fine with the correct cultivation.
This is all assuming that the mesh looks similar to the pictures above.
I'd probably remove in that case.
Your plan sounds sensible. Theres plenty videos on YouTube on how to grow a wildlfower meadow. I've never had much success myself, I resorted to the meadow mats in the end.
Thanks again