Advice on laying a lawn

I've dug up all my old stones and rotivated the ground. Now not sure what to do!! I thought about hiring a whacker to pound the soil down then get some good topsoil to lay the turf on but any advice/tips would be welcome on how to do it

whatever you do dont compact it with a whacker. You will create a soil pan where the layer is too hard for the water to permeate and it will cause drainage problems for the new lawn. Rotovate it to get it down to a fine tilth. Add some compost in as you do it. Then rake it level by eye to get rid of the worst of the lumps and bumps. Then trudge up and down it in small pigeon steps to compact it but not too hard! After that get a scaffold board or lump of 4 x 2 as long as possible. Start at the furthest end of the garden. lay the board down across the lawn and it gives you a atrsight line to work to. Rake alongside it the width of the rake and then pull it towards you. Do the next bit and so on. As you pull it towards you you should see any big lumps or dips and it should start to bring stones etc with it. Work all the way down towards the EXIT from the garden. When thats done you should now have a level and well raked lawn with a fine tilth on top. DO NOT WALK ON IT!
You can now start laying the turf in the opposite direction walking on boards as you do. Lay them in a brickwork pattern. Get the turf from a decent turf supplier not one of the DIY sheds, its normally been about 4-7 days since its cut from one of those places. A decent turf supplier should cut it the day before or that day if theyre really good.
Gently tamp the turf in position and butt the edges up together. Its easiest to make any cuts with a bread knife, and best to buy one for it as it will ruin the wifes one very quickly (i go through one in about two weeks at work!) A syou lay the turf you should be working towards the end of the garden that you starte raking so that you are not walking on the raked area. When you get to the end come back walking on the boards taking them up as you go.
Sit back and admire your handywork and have a beer. Dont use a sprinkler on it to water it. This just allows water to sit on the surface. take the end off the hose and deluge each area of the lawn with it. You are trying to saok the soil underneath to encourage the roots to grow down. A sprinkler doesnt have the effect and you end up with weak roots. Do that about 2-3 times a week dependent on the weather and it should have taken by then. Dont walk on it as the soil underneath will be slowley compacting down, and a size 9 on it will give a nice big squishy dent on a watered patch!

So in a nutshell there you are!

I also use an alumnium ladder, laid on the ground, with a small bag of sand on it for weight. By pulling it with a rope tied to each end I use it as a giant scraper to achieve a really good level surface once the area has been rotovated. Or, if you have no rope, use a helper to drag it, one at each end.

Just something else in the armoury to try.

i have quite a few small stones in the soil - will this matter or will it help with drainage? i need to put about 60mm of good top soil on top of the exsiting soil so the top bit of the soil will be good quality

The small stones wont matter, most will be raked off the top when you do it anyway. rather than just putting down topsoil, i would rotovate a ground conditioner or compost into the existing soil, unless you are going to use a levelling soil such as fenland supplied by the turf supplier.

Oh and one last bit of advice, make sure you wear gloves when you handle the turf, it will draw the moisture out of your hands and leave them very chapped very quickly if you dont

steveb1964 said:

i have quite a few small stones in the soil - will this matter or will it help with drainage? i need to put about 60mm of good top soil on top of the exsiting soil so the top bit of the soil will be good quality

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Beware of top soil sold by people such as skip companies and other waste management companies - they call it screened topsoil, which is actually that which they pull out of skips passed thru a big sieve. There's no guarantee of quality, and will often contain loads of other small waste items such as glass and metal fragments. If you want to do the job well, push the boat out and buy it from a specialist supplier (I use my turf supplier). This is usually taken straight off the turf fields themselves and is rich, dark and full of nutrients.

Must be the dirtiest job out there, turfing.

did one lawn today, and it was so dry that i actually came home pretty clean! (well almost just dusty rather than muddy!)

going to get rolawn topsoil £50 a ton as i have to build it up a little bit

My advice is wait until the warm weather has gone - you'll be watering it and freeting over it every day!

chrisfidler said:

My advice is wait until the warm weather has gone - you'll be watering it and freeting over it every day!

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still not done getting done the end of this week

should i put some sharp sand in the soil for drainage?

whats the soil like?

not too bad, it's been dug over and rotivated. It had been under plastic and stones for years and years so it was a bit clay like at first but it's turned out ok

I'm putting some rowlawn topsoil on to level things off

wouldnt worry too much about sharp sand. if you really want to put soemthing in then rotovate it with some ground conditioner (compost to help open it up, before you level it and put the levelling soil on