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Do I kill words first

Samgrange4371Samgrange4371 Posts: 9
in Problem solving
I have a garden full of weeds I want to rotavate put top soil down and then turf 
what prep do I need to do ? In which order pkesse
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  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 17,618
    If you rotavate perennial weeds such as docks or dandelions, you chop up the roots and thousands come up.    You need to kill all the perennial weeds. You can do that by either covering with thick black plastic to exclude light for a year, use a translocated weedkiller such as glyphosate  that kills the roots, or the old fashioned method of forking it over and removing every bit of root. When you have done that,  you can level the top soil, improve it if necessary with compost or farm yard manure, then turf or sow seed.

     Alternately you can rotavate, put turf down and mow every three days and use weed and feed several times through a summer. 

    It depends on whether you want a lawn to kick a ball about on, the dog to pee on, or something akin to the hallowed ground of wimbledon.
  • Ladybird4Ladybird4 Posts: 37,906
    Hello Sam and welcome to the forum. I suspect you mean weeds and not words?
    Get rid of the weeds first if you can. Depending on what weeds you have growing, some may just grow again quickly when chopped up by a rotavator and the more pernicious ones will grow from each chopped up piece left behind. Once the weeds are dead then you can rotavate if you wish. Rake over the soils sorface to remove any large stones and then go over the whole plot walking on your heels to compact the soil. Lightly rake again and you are ready to roll out the turf.
    Cacoethes: An irresistible urge to do something inadvisable
  • Samgrange4371Samgrange4371 Posts: 9
    Thank you so much my weeds look like cabbages what should I use ? 
  • TenNTenN Posts: 184
    Is it worth rotavating first, see what if anything comes up? 
  • Ladybird4Ladybird4 Posts: 37,906
    It might help Sam if you could post a picture of the weeds so we have some idea as to what you have to deal with. Rotavating with something like couch grass or mares tail in the plot would create more problems than it would solve but your description of your weeds looking like cabbages sounds - cautiously - promising.
    Cacoethes: An irresistible urge to do something inadvisable
  • Samgrange4371Samgrange4371 Posts: 9

  • Samgrange4371Samgrange4371 Posts: 9
    These are the weeds that have grown as u can see the ground is cracking it’s so dry should I water it before rotorvatating it ?
  • Ladybird4Ladybird4 Posts: 37,906
    It won't be necessary to water it Sam. In fact it would be easier to do it whilst its dry. Wet soil would stick to the rotavator blades making it harder to shift the machine. Kill the weeds first though. Sorry @fidgetbones - your post wasn't there when I typed mine.
    Cacoethes: An irresistible urge to do something inadvisable
  • Samgrange4371Samgrange4371 Posts: 9
    Thank you for your advice could u also tell me what weed killer to get for the weeds that I have posted a picture on ? And how deep should top soil be as I’ve had a quote and it came to 2300 for 80 ft by 20 ft 
  • GemmaJFGemmaJF Posts: 2,286
    edited May 2020
    All I've ever done is rotavate, then wait for the flush of weeds that follows to germinate (dormant seeds are brought to the surface by any form of digging), then smother with black plastic. After a few months the soil is as clean of weeds as it will ever be.

    Never once have weeds annual or perennial been any kind of a problem using this method.

    If you deprive plants of water and light they die.

    If you chop plants up into little pieces and deprive them of water and light, they die even quicker. 

    We have London clay, it is impossible to dig unbroken soil and remove weeds by hand, in effect one would have to dig out all the top soil to do it. 

    Been using the above method for 15 years now.

    How clean the soil is speaks for itself:



    There were docks, mallow, thistles, dandelion, creeping buttercup, nettles and gawd knows what when I started on this plot. I simply rotavated the lot in, waited for seeds on the surface to germinate, then smothered it with silage sheeting.
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