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Turf over dead Grass
JamieTennant20
Posts: 11
So i weed killed off my old grass seeded garden a few weeks ago and it's totally dead now a few little green bits of grass but I weed killed it all again today and laid a fresh batch of compost over the full garden with some dead bits of grass popping through..
but my question is would this be adequate to lay new turf on as money is a bit tight at the minute and the grass was totally dead and browny coloured before I weed killed it all again and put fresh compost down?
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Yea there is old dead grass under there would it be better to buy a ton of top soil to go over the top just to make sure?
Id go along with Horico, you'll have to get that old dead weed/turf out the way, and make a tilth for the new seed, remember compost drys out and does not hold the seed as good as soil but it's ok to rake it into the soil.
Ok thanks for the advice as I have already out compost down would it work to put that week micro fibre sheeting all over and then too soil over that?
i wouldn't put any sheeting down, 1st make sure the area is weed free, 2nd turn the ground over, 3rd prep the area with a rake to a fine tilth, tread the ground to remove any hollows, it's now down to you if you want seed or turf, but the preparation is the same, I'd lay turf Autumn/Winter and seed in the Spring.
Ahh the turning over is the hard part..is there any reason you wouldmy put the sheeting down
Well gardening is hard work at times, if it's a large area get a rotovator in to make life a bit easear, the money used on the hire would be less then the landscape membrane and top soil, once all the weeds have been killed off I so no need to put a membrane down, I've laid many lawns using turf and seed and never used membrane. I'd like to hear off any other readers who might of used it for this method.
I don't think membrane would serve any useful purpose here, unless there are lots of perennial weeds in the soil - which would obviously not be a good basis for a lawn.
I've told this tale before, on a similar thread - about my turf supplier in Northumberland when I worked as a gardener. He had a cancelled order for turf, so decided to lay it in his own garden so as not to waste it. He spread a ton of sharp sand over his existing lawn and laid the new turf directly on top, and kept it well watered. The resulting lawn was beautiful. So unorthodox methods do sometimes work.
Why did you kill off the existing lawn? Was it badly drained? If so, you won't get a good result by laying new turf on a thin layer of compost. At the very least I'd try to spike the area, and maybe add some sharp sand (not yellow, builder's sand) before turfing. If it was just worn and weedy, you might be all right. But you might not...
Turf's expensive stuff...
Ahh ok should I turn it all over and rotavateing it all in that case? I killed it all off because it was grass seeded as we didn't have a lot of money at the time sort of a quick fix to look ok now we want it doing properly with turf to look good.
Also I had killed off the full garden and put a layer of compost over the top as the garden had dips all over the place if I am to have to turn it all over and rotavate it how would I go about levelling it or would the garden be ok with being weed killed a few more times to let the soil soak it?
It's quite hard to imagine the situation without seeing it, Jamie. Would it be possible to post a photo or two? That might give us a better idea what to recommend.