One for the gardeners, I'm sure there's a few on here! If I put a few inches of topsoil down and scatter some grass seed will it grow and how long would it take? Seems to grow in a matter of days and virtually anywhere on earth when you don't want it.
I seem to remember grass seed, lawns, is very temperature dependent somewhere between 5 and 20 degrees, or it doesn't grow, strain dependent.
i bought fast growing hard wearing rye grass from wilko just raked it so it had loose soil after and threw loads of seed on it water with hose at night was loverly to walk on that stuff with bare feet and sit and enjoy it
About 27 years ago when I was still living with my parents I came home from a party absolutely trolleyed. Went to bed but couldn’t sleep due to violent room spinning. I went out to the garden in my under crackers to get some air. At one end of the garden was a big bald patch in the grass due to a log pile having been on it for months. At the other end of the garden about 100’ away there was tall grass in the hedge that had gone to seed. I distracted myself from the nausea by stripping the seeds off the tall grass and walking to the other end to scatter it on the bald patch (for hours). Within a couple of weeks the bald patch was gone. Might be coincidence but I don’t think so. That would have been in July or August I reckon. It’s actually quite a fond memory. Thanks for bringing it back!
not worth the money brightspark under new council rules 1st child leaves i had to downsize by one room when last child left had to downsize to a one bed flat i dont mind downsizing but i dont see the need to put loads of money into it either when council refused to move the big stones out the garden and remove the crap all over the garden
Ideally the soil needs levelling,raking,seeding then rolling. It will obviously need watering this time of year. If its a bigger area get some machines in. Roughly levelled with a machine and followed up with a Blec seeder The Blec
Ha ha! Cheers for the replies! Bit of background; I've built an extension for a customer and the pile of spoil from the foundations got shifted about 6 weeks ago. The grass underneath has completely gone and the soil is now hard and cracked. I've been asked to do a path and some steps up to the garden and also the drive later this year. There's about 3ton of topsoil come out. Customer understood garden would need work to reinstate which I've not included as it's not my thing. I just wondered if it was as easy as spreading top soil and seeding or if it was more work? Seems pointless doing something that's doomed to fail. We once turfed my brother's garden about 15 years ago and it was dead within two weeks!
Nowhere near that size 8ob! Was thinking of forking the existing ground to loosen it up maybe hire a scarifier, putting the topsoil down, customer has an old roller I can use, then whack a load of seed down and tell her to water it each night! This is something I was planning to do for nowt as an extra to finish the job off so don't want to spend days and lots on materials but she's a brilliant woman and she's given me plenty of work so really don't mind a day or two and a hundred quid in materials, plus it would be nice to 'finish' the job off.
id run cultivator over it as it would break it up easier and quicker thats before you lay the top soil on it thats just to level what you have and fill up near the walls and steps with whats already on the ground
when I had my three phase cable put in the uk power guys filled the trench across the verge and threw some grass seed down, 2" of grass in two weeks, magic grass seed! grab some of theirs,
For the area you're doing, it's probably a fine plan. The only detail I would highlight, would be to throw down the seed before the rolling. Also, for small areas, for every handfull of seed, add one for the birds. There is less chance that they fly off with all of it. ATB, Daniel
Depends on the available services in your area. Locally we have many self employed one man bands doing gardening work - of highly variable quality. However I observed one working nearby and noted he had all the appropriate equipment and was doing things the way I would have . Not at @8ob scale, but stuff I couldn't hire locally. For a job like that he would turn up with all the equipment, fertiliser, seeds etc together with the knowledge of what to do and where to get other stuff such as good quality topsoil. He would do the job quicker and cheaper than you could once you factored in your time collecting and returning equipment - if anywhere locally hired it at all - and sourcing supplies. Any comeback is to him not you!
We already had a bit of lawn, it was surrounded by gravel to the flags, we didn't like it and everytime you cut the grass the gravel was flung round like little bullets. We were going to pull the lot up as the grass was in bad shape anyway and returf, then lock down happened. Ordered some seed, pulled up the gravel, dug down about 10 inches around the existing lawn Threw a load of manure in, flattened that and then top soil on top. left it a few days, Raked it Seeded it and then rolled it (anyone overly cautious on H+S cover your eyes) the only round heavy thing I had was the argon cylinder so used that. We threw compost thinly over the seeds in the existing lawn. Keep it wet. 5 days later we had a load of seedlings. There is a part of it that doesn't get sun, this took nearly 2 weeks for the seed to germinate. Followed this guide roughly https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=424 And this was the seed we bought. https://www.pitchcare.com/shop/estate-grass-seed.html waiting for the seed to be sowed, starlings cleaning the lawn in preparation. Took the top third off with the mower yesterday, lines are from the mower wheels.
