Afternoon all.
My rear garden was covered over with crazy paving. We would like to lay a new lawn for the boy to run about on so today I started taking up the paving to dig over and aerate the ground prior to seeding after the last of the frosts (hopefully early March).
My initial joy at the easy to dig earth under the slabs turned to dismay when I struck something hard underneath. I knew there was a sort of rectangle of concrete around the garden but assumed this was just where the original border for the flower beds had been.
Firstly I discovered that this was set as reinforced concrete with steel bars. By digging down it is about a foot deep in concrete and runs around the entire garden. I thought that maybe with enough topsoil covering it and earth either side, the grass would bed in ok over it. I've tried smashing it with hammers, pick axes and digging underneath to weaken it but it won't budge or even break.
However, when digging over the soil inside this concrete rectangle, I have discovered that there is what I can only presume is a former patio underneath. Until today this was covered over with various hardcore of old bricks and concrete, and also a good amount of earth. It's got a red tinge to it, I imagine popular of the 60's concrete fans.
My next concern was that even with enough topsoil on top, I would struggle to get much grass to grow as waterlogging could be a problem with this concrete basin in the middle of the lawn. However, I have since discovered a sort of diamond cut out shape in the middle of the concrete where there is just earth underneath. Presumably a central flower bed when the concrete was laid. The concrete appears to be around 6 inches deep laid on top of more hardcore.
So now i'm in pure optimist territory and hoping that this will provide enough drainage for the central grassed area, once I've sifted all the mortar, brick, loose concrete and other bits out and put down a decent topsoil.
So I basically had - crazy paving
3" hardcore/earth
6" concrete
a mass of hardcore (but can't dig deep enough to see)
I'm in London where rainfall levels are lower than most places but where there is a high content of clay in the soil. I have recently had building work done and the whole garden has been crushed by the weight of the bricks and associated mess in the garden. I have dug down and aerated to about 12 inches where the garden is earth and am in the process of digging over the entire content and sifting the central bit on top of the concrete patio with the hope that with topsoil I can still plant my grass.
Central concrete free area in old patio:
Reinforced steel concrete rectangle around garden:
Wide view showing rectangle of concrete and new border of bricks (laid by me today) outside it:
Close up of concrete free bit:
Another wide angle view of garden:
So, my questions are:
Is this central non-concrete area likely to offer enough drainage to the rest of the concrete basin?
If so, how deep should my topsoil go?
Will I be able to get grass to grow easily enough over the concrete rectangle up to the new flower beds?
Or do I have to bite the bullet and hire a big jack hammer and a big skip? To be fair i'd like to avoid this if possible for the obvious reason as it's a lot of work but also because my garden is already quite low, and having taken a load of paving and hardcore out, potentially taking out a further a further 8-10" of concrete and hardcore will leave me looking down quite low! The garden is already a step down of around a foot below the house!
My rear garden was covered over with crazy paving. We would like to lay a new lawn for the boy to run about on so today I started taking up the paving to dig over and aerate the ground prior to seeding after the last of the frosts (hopefully early March).
My initial joy at the easy to dig earth under the slabs turned to dismay when I struck something hard underneath. I knew there was a sort of rectangle of concrete around the garden but assumed this was just where the original border for the flower beds had been.
Firstly I discovered that this was set as reinforced concrete with steel bars. By digging down it is about a foot deep in concrete and runs around the entire garden. I thought that maybe with enough topsoil covering it and earth either side, the grass would bed in ok over it. I've tried smashing it with hammers, pick axes and digging underneath to weaken it but it won't budge or even break.
However, when digging over the soil inside this concrete rectangle, I have discovered that there is what I can only presume is a former patio underneath. Until today this was covered over with various hardcore of old bricks and concrete, and also a good amount of earth. It's got a red tinge to it, I imagine popular of the 60's concrete fans.
My next concern was that even with enough topsoil on top, I would struggle to get much grass to grow as waterlogging could be a problem with this concrete basin in the middle of the lawn. However, I have since discovered a sort of diamond cut out shape in the middle of the concrete where there is just earth underneath. Presumably a central flower bed when the concrete was laid. The concrete appears to be around 6 inches deep laid on top of more hardcore.
So now i'm in pure optimist territory and hoping that this will provide enough drainage for the central grassed area, once I've sifted all the mortar, brick, loose concrete and other bits out and put down a decent topsoil.
So I basically had - crazy paving
3" hardcore/earth
6" concrete
a mass of hardcore (but can't dig deep enough to see)
I'm in London where rainfall levels are lower than most places but where there is a high content of clay in the soil. I have recently had building work done and the whole garden has been crushed by the weight of the bricks and associated mess in the garden. I have dug down and aerated to about 12 inches where the garden is earth and am in the process of digging over the entire content and sifting the central bit on top of the concrete patio with the hope that with topsoil I can still plant my grass.
Central concrete free area in old patio:
Reinforced steel concrete rectangle around garden:
Wide view showing rectangle of concrete and new border of bricks (laid by me today) outside it:
Close up of concrete free bit:
Another wide angle view of garden:
So, my questions are:
Is this central non-concrete area likely to offer enough drainage to the rest of the concrete basin?
If so, how deep should my topsoil go?
Will I be able to get grass to grow easily enough over the concrete rectangle up to the new flower beds?
Or do I have to bite the bullet and hire a big jack hammer and a big skip? To be fair i'd like to avoid this if possible for the obvious reason as it's a lot of work but also because my garden is already quite low, and having taken a load of paving and hardcore out, potentially taking out a further a further 8-10" of concrete and hardcore will leave me looking down quite low! The garden is already a step down of around a foot below the house!