what equipment shall I hire for these jobs?

[traviata]

I'm going to reclaim some borders from the lawn, and from an area that was under concrete. There are two smallish areas, total area about 15 square metres, but less than 3 m in any direction.

So my plan is to;

dig out and remove the top few inches of soil from under the concrete;
till or rotavate that area
then work in some manure etc.
add topsoil later.

and
till the turf into the ground
then leave it for the birds to pick over until the autumn, removing weeds as they appear.

So I have been looking at tillers/ rotavators etc. Is there one machine that will do everything? A turf cutter looks like overkill, the areas are not regular and they are not very big in any direction. Will a lightweight tiller plough the turf into the ground for me?

[soggyweetabix]

I don't know, Traviata, as I have never used or seen a tiller! I will watch your thread with interest, though, as I have a similar problem: a densely overgrown allotment plot. I have strimmed it, but don't know if rotavating it and then mulching and covering it until spring is the way to go. I wonder if that's what YOU should do too, as grass is very tenacious - surely it would still grow into your border if it was merely turned into the ground?

[peggyundercrackers]

I wouldn't till the turf area,, I would just turn the turf over and leave it for a few weeks, it won't grow back. We done this a few years ago, we kind of cut the area of turf into foot squares then just dug it out and turned it over and it never grow back. We only done it by hand because it was a relatively small area, but a bigger area than you are speaking about, so was easy to do. The turf puts lots of nutrients back into the ground.

[traviata]

That's really useful, peggy, thanks. I do want to keep the nutrients in the turf.

soggy, I sympathise!
With my lawn area, at least I know there aren't any perennial weeds, beyond the odd daisy or dandelion. I would have thought there would be a risk with your allotment that a rotavator would just chop up any weeds and the root pieces could all re-grow.

a summer of digging ahead for me, then.

[bookbook]

Turf makes amazing loam. If you have a corner out of the way, take up the turf and turn upside down, pile the turves on top of one another (always grass down) and cover. Next year you will should a lovely heap of good compost/loam to add to your soil.