.... and you would just be paying them to do the sort of unskilled, manual labour that any reasonably fit adult can undertake. You would not be using their professional expertise.
Not a nice job to do but it won't take that long on a small patch. Divide it into small sections and do a bit each day.
You might need a skip though - looks like there might be a lot of rubbish to come out...
Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
The cost to get somebody to lay a lawn will be dominated by the labour to get the prep right. Ours wasn't a new build but the garden had a slope, lots of stones, buried rubbish etc, but with a hour or so a day after work I had it cleared in a week. Then I spent another week, again just an hour a day, raking it over to get rid of the smaller stones.
once you have yours level, order the turfs and the topsoil. Get the topsoil down, rake over, tread down to make sure there are no high or low spots, gently rake again and then lay your turfs. Keep well watered for a couple of weeks. Job done.
if you turf the whole area, I'd guess that, with topsoil, it'd be about £200-£300. I wouldn't get somebody in to do it, unless your within 20 miles of Southend on sea then I'm your man!
Looking at the photo again AJP - is there a boundary fence in place now between you and the building site next door.
I wouldn't put any turf or seed down until I was sure no builders / scaffolders / painters etc could walk over my hard work. An up to date photo would be helpful - it does look like quite a slope up to the path and I don't understand why the builder has put gravel there.
Personally, I would consider terracing that little bit after investigating what's under the gravel. You could then have a small infill of planting in that corner and lay the rest of the garden to (level) lawn.
Dave 2356 - you did a good mini makeover there!
Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
Sorry - It sounded a bit rude of me to describe your work as a 'mini' makeover . Clearly much hard work gone in there to produce an excellent garden.
But I saw your posting on another thread & I got the impression that you've done initial work on the garden to make it useable and looking nice for a party - but you are actually planning to move things around and do quite a bit more work on it.
Hope you are planning to post lots of pictures - love to watch the development of a garden
Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
AJp. All the talk so far has been mostly about landscaping,which is as it should be. However, one of my favourite things is to plant herbs that your family like to use in the kitchen. Some of the pluses are that they are cheap to buy, will grow happily in pots until the garden beds are established, and you'll get the pleasure of harvesting some home grown produce quickly.
Sorry, don't understand 2. If you have removed all the weeds/ grass, what are you weed-killing?
If you are going to rotovate ensure there are no perennial weeds in the soil otherwise you will just chop them up and multiply them. Docks, couch grass.
That is also rather poor soil, make sure you examine the screened top soil very thoroughly, there are some rogues selling it.
Posts
erm, given its current state, a lot.
Not a nice job to do but it won't take that long on a small patch. Divide it into small sections and do a bit each day.
You might need a skip though - looks like there might be a lot of rubbish to come out...
The cost to get somebody to lay a lawn will be dominated by the labour to get the prep right. Ours wasn't a new build but the garden had a slope, lots of stones, buried rubbish etc, but with a hour or so a day after work I had it cleared in a week. Then I spent another week, again just an hour a day, raking it over to get rid of the smaller stones.
once you have yours level, order the turfs and the topsoil. Get the topsoil down, rake over, tread down to make sure there are no high or low spots, gently rake again and then lay your turfs. Keep well watered for a couple of weeks. Job done.
if you turf the whole area, I'd guess that, with topsoil, it'd be about £200-£300. I wouldn't get somebody in to do it, unless your within 20 miles of Southend on sea then I'm your man!
as with many jobs, good preparation is the key.
Looking at the photo again AJP - is there a boundary fence in place now between you and the building site next door.
I wouldn't put any turf or seed down until I was sure no builders / scaffolders / painters etc could walk over my hard work. An up to date photo would be helpful - it does look like quite a slope up to the path and I don't understand why the builder has put gravel there.
Personally, I would consider terracing that little bit after investigating what's under the gravel. You could then have a small infill of planting in that corner and lay the rest of the garden to (level) lawn.
Dave 2356 - you did a good mini makeover there!
Apj45 We are in the same situation apart from we are not due to complete until the end of August
Dave 2356 - just read back my own post there.
Sorry - It sounded a bit rude of me to describe your work as a 'mini' makeover
. Clearly much hard work gone in there to produce an excellent garden.
But I saw your posting on another thread & I got the impression that you've done initial work on the garden to make it useable and looking nice for a party - but you are actually planning to move things around and do quite a bit more work on it.
Hope you are planning to post lots of pictures - love to watch the development of a garden
Ok, just about ready to undertake this. Please correct if my steps are wrong or out of place...
1. Remove all stones and weeds/grass, pretty much skim a couple of inches off, quick fork over and rake, removing as many stones as possible..
2. Put weedkiller down, leave for a few days
3. Put down screened topsoil,
4. For and rake eges, and rotate that I'm hiring.
5. After plot is well rotovated, rake it until i have a good flat finish..
6.Tread it then fine rake it again
7. Put down lawn smith starter lawn fertiliser
8.Put down lawn smith classic green grass seed
9. Get sprinkle set up with timer...
Hope to get this started Monday as Im working all weekend...
PS. In the first picture, should I just the same technique with the sloping bank, perhaps over seed it a bit???
AJp. All the talk so far has been mostly about landscaping,which is as it should be. However, one of my favourite things is to plant herbs that your family like to use in the kitchen. Some of the pluses are that they are cheap to buy, will grow happily in pots until the garden beds are established, and you'll get the pleasure of harvesting some home grown produce quickly.
If you are going to rotovate ensure there are no perennial weeds in the soil otherwise you will just chop them up and multiply them. Docks, couch grass.
That is also rather poor soil, make sure you examine the screened top soil very thoroughly, there are some rogues selling it.