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Levelling garden and turfing

Hi all,

We're shortly about to undergo a renovation/extension project on our home and as part of this we've begun to attempt to level a large part of the garden. At the moment the garden slopes away from the house getting steeper the further away from the house (towards a stream), over the weekend a few of us broke down an old wall and slabbing on the lower part of the garden which was on a slightly different level, at it's lowest point it's approximately 4ft from the level we'd like to raise it to. The plan is to gain back some of the garden from the space we lose by extending outwards, we plan to use some of the rubble from the weekend (broken bricks, slabbing and concrete, uncompacted) to fill some of the depth, then use the soil from the extension excavation and finally around 1-2ft of topsoil on the top before laying turf. This will all be held back by a large retaining wall (double thick possibly inc. some rebar) which I will get the builders to leave some drainage holes in.

Due to the large depth and substantial layer of top soil (1-2ft planned) do you think this will be at least adequate enough to get a decent lawn? If completely removing the rubble means I won't end up spending money on a project doomed for failure that's fine, however I'd probably need to come up with a 'Plan B' as I think the then required approx 15tonnes of soil & top soil plus turf may be out of our budget.

Posts

  • KT53KT53 Posts: 9,016
    If you are raising the level by 4 feet I think you would be better with something like gabions rather than a wall.  Gabions will allow drainage and you would also be able to use the building rubble in the gabions and just face them with good stone.
  • That's a good idea KT53, thanks! My only reservation with that would be the possible amount of growth we could end up getting between the cracks etc. For context we live near to a forest and get a lot of seeds etc blowing into the garden. Due to this we get some seriously strong mutant looking weeds. This may discourage me from going down the Gabion route instead of something containing fewer gaps.

    My main concern really is bringing up the level and using the rubble/concrete over potentially having to have many tonnes of earth and soil added.
  • I don't really see why you'd mind a few weeds in the gabions...at least they're adding to the biodiversity instead of just being a hog of carbon like concrete. 
    To Plant a Garden is to Believe in Tomorrow
  • LoxleyLoxley Posts: 5,698
    If you go the concrete wall route, dig a drainage trench to the back of it, lined with permeable geotextile and filled with clean stone/crushed concrete (not fines). This will help avoid the holes getting clogged with soil.

    I think 1-2ft of soil over well broken up rubble fill should be fine.
    "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour". 
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