Leveling garden - how should i pre treat the land for turf?

[deefadog]

Hi all, going to be leveling my garden in sections, basically the idea is to take up a few square meters of grass at a time at a time, roill it up, take the unwated earth away and relay the turf in the same day.

How should i treat the earth underneath, roll it first?

Any tips on doing this would be most greatfull, i am going to do this in section at the weekends, this way i can still have a lawn for the little one to play on and not have a mud bathh if it empties down

Many thanks

 

[WabbitPoo]

How do you intend removing the turf? If using a spade then you'll have lumpy turves (turfs?) to put back, and you'll be doing well to get a smooth lawn afterwards. The right way of doing it would be to strip the turf with a machine, Rotavate the soil, rake it level, heel it in, rake it again, then put back the turf. Pound to a penny though the soil underneath is stoney, bricky or generally crap.

Dont want to rain on your parade, and I wish you well, but you'll have to spend ages settling your lumpy turves back in.

 

[deefadog]

Yes with a spade, the garden is a new build and the turf has been down around 5 months, so i am hoping it will come up not to bad.

It will be a task but i need to do this in small stages as i work alot so hiring one of the machines each weekend will be costly.

Like you say it's going to be a task but hopefully it wil be ok.

When i get the flat level, is it wise to use one of those big garden sieves and put as much pure earth as possible?

 

[Thermo]

how big is the lawn?

 

[deefadog]

The area of the lawn i am going to be leveling is around 30ft x 40ft

It starts off with a gradual incline, so around 20ft is from flat to a raised area of 1ft, then the remaining area goes about around 2ft

 

[JohnD]

... is it wise to use one of those big garden sieves...

I've done that, but it is hard work, and very wearing on the back. I wouldn't try it for anything bigger than a flowerbed if I were you.

If you have a very dry, light soil, it is not too bad (btw you can mix gypsum plaster into clay soil, it dries it out and flocculates it so it is not so heavy and clumpy).

I did once see a sort of hand-operated sieving machine, with a rotating paddle to move the soil around to save you having to lift and shake the soil, but have not been able to find one since.

If it is new build you can start by lifting out the bricks, paving stones and lumps of concrete that were hidden under the turf, never mind sieving it.

 

[deefadog]

Thanks John, I'll do the first section on Saturday and see how it goes. And your right about the new build god knows what's hidden under there! Thanks for the tip with the gypsum!

If this dry weather continues, i guesss it would be wise on friday evening to water the grass, other wise it's going to be dry and the grass will not come up very well - Yes?