Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Gardening

Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

Anybody self-turfed?

21 replies

snoggle · 04/06/2014 08:39

We have a big piece of garden to turf, about 10x20m and never done it before. Is this something we can attempt ourselves?

The area has been pretty well-level and has a reasonable layer of topsoil. Does anyone have any tips? What tools do we need? (or should we be getting a professional)

OP posts:
upupupandaway · 04/06/2014 12:07

200 square metres of turf is a lot. I can turf but it is hard work.

You will need to spray the entire area with glyphosate weed killer, buy the stuff to dilute. Let it do it's work, this may take a couple of weeks.

Next remove large stones and any rubble etc, there may be slabs hiding beneath and these will need to come out.

Level the ground properly, use a line and stakes to do this.
When you are satisfied it's pretty level consolidate the earth by trampling on it; I use a short scaffold board and jump on that.

Scatter a fine sprinkling of growmore on the area, it will help feed the lawn and attract roots to the soil.

Select your turf, use a proper turf merchant, the chains sell manky stuff for 2x the price. If it is going to take some stick,, I'd opt for meadow turf, it is hardwearing and cheap.

The tools you need are a couple of scaffold planks, a decent rake, a wheelbarrow, and an old breadknife for cutting the turf.

When your turf is delivered, we're talking a few pallets here, you'll need to cover it to make sure it doesn't dry out.

Roll out your first turve on the edge of your space. Next roll out another next to the first as close as you can, almost but not quite overlapping. Cut about 2 feet off the end of the turve. Place your board on the join and walk along it to close the join,( avoid walking on new turf for at least 3 weeks). Then roll out the third but don't cut off the end. Again tamp down the seam.

What you are aiming for is a sort of brickwork pattern with as few seams as possible in an area.

Rules to remember; always use a full width of turf at the edges of the lawn, if you use fiddly bits they will dry out. Any off cuts can be worked into the pattern to maintain the staggered effect.

Lastly ,water copiously every night.it will dry up at an alarming rate if you don't.

Good luck.

snoggle · 04/06/2014 18:39

Wow thanks for all that info, that's really helpful. Will discuss it with DH, as it does sound like a lot of hard work.

I wonder whether it's worth getting a quote for the laying. We can do all the groundwork, but sounds like the actual laying is the difficult bit.

OP posts:
BuilderMammy · 04/06/2014 19:24

Would you not just chuck some grass seed down? That's what we did.

Deverethemuzzler · 04/06/2014 19:30

I did it myself. I found it pretty easy and now I have a nice lush lawn.
Its for playing on so its not like a prize winner or anything but it looks fine to me.

It is laid over very poor soil. A mixture of gravel, bark chips and other nastiness. There is also a concrete path under there somewhere.

I cleared the worst of the gravel. That was a big job.
I lightly dug over the ground
I got a lot of multi purpose homebase own compost.
I put it down and raked it level but not compacted.
I laid the lawn in a brick pattern. The only tool I had was an old kitchen knife.
Some of the turf was terrible but it was all they had left.

I bought 15 boxes of grass seed from the pound shop and scattered it.

I watered the turf every day for two weeks.

Its doing great and could do with a mow.

upupupandaway · 04/06/2014 21:24

The laying of is hard work but incredibly satisfying. Allow yourself and hubby a good day to do it. Seed takes forever to establish. I've worked in horticulture the last for a few years. Once you get started it's really addictive and easy .Just stagger the joins, tamper down the seams, any dips, lift the turves and fill in with soil.

upupupandaway · 04/06/2014 21:28

120 square yards will cost about £150 quid maybe less. Factor in 2 people and 1 to 2 days to prepare the ground and lay the turf. Don't buy the top end stuff, it'll look pretty but isn't serviceable.

snoggle · 04/06/2014 22:10

That's all quite inspiring :o
It certainly doesn't need to be a beautiful bowling green, it will have the climbing frame and probably a goal on top of it.

Good to know that the cheaper turf works ok

OP posts:
Deverethemuzzler · 04/06/2014 23:28

Ours was bog standard from homebase. I did one half one day and OH went to get the rest a few days later. We don't have a lot of muscle between us. OH has MS and I am a bit on the weedy side so we had to do it in shifts.

You should have seen the stuff he bought home! It was on its last grassy legs. Half yellow and manky.

I put it down anyway and tended it lovingly and now it looks the same as the rest.
It looked bloody awful for a week or so though. Grin
It was a last ditch attempt before we went for astroturf. We had tried everything else, One of the DCs has ASD and he threw everything around and annoyed the neighbours.
If the turf didn't work we were going to have to apply for grants and find the rest to get the astro turf done.

I am amazed at my little lawn. I keep looking at it Grin

snoggle · 05/06/2014 00:32

That's a lovely turfing story :o

I am 39 weeks PG so I will be acting in a purely supervisory capacity with this, but I now feel getting a professional in would be wimping out.

Bring on the turves!

OP posts:
upupupandaway · 05/06/2014 07:30

Don't ever buy turf from homebase, it's hideously expensive and poor quality, get some delivered from a reputable dealer.

Deverethemuzzler · 05/06/2014 08:44

We couldn't get any delivered because we would not have been able to shift it through the house.

It was 3.99 and 2.99 a turve. Is that expensive?

We just had to be pragmatic about it really. Because we had to collect small bits at a time it was the only option we had so I guess we are lucky it turned out ok.

I thought about delivery but having a big load of stuff left at the roadside for us to shift in one go would have been a nightmare.

snoogle if I could have paid someone I would of! Grin
but I am quite proud of myself for doing it and it working

zoemaguire · 05/06/2014 08:50

We've just done a similar area (well dh and grandpas, I was post c section!). The laying is the easy bit, it's the preparing the ground that takes ages. The laying only took a day, although it was by torchlight by the end:). And for that quantity, definitely get stuff delivered from a turf dealer, it'd cost a small fortune from home base or suchlike! Also in our last house when we turfed and bought a piece from b and q when we ran out of the posh stuff, that piece was the only one that died!

upupupandaway · 05/06/2014 09:13

£3.99 a turve??That's a fortune! Meadow is about £1 a turve if you buy a lot. Cultivated about £1.60 ish.

Deverethemuzzler · 05/06/2014 09:18

Well it only cost us about £100 ish all in so I am not worried.
No point really. We couldn't have done it any other way.
It was a hell of a lot cheaper than 2k plus for astro turf.

upupupandaway · 05/06/2014 09:43

Astro turf is pretty hideous don't you think? Turves come in different sizes, I usually buy direct, they don't charge for delivery if you buy a lot. Should add that I used to work as a landscape gardener.

Deverethemuzzler · 05/06/2014 10:02

No I don't. It's an alternative ground covering and practical for lots of reasons.
Not everyone can maintain a lawn and it's not suitable for everyone.
In fact if my DS reacts to the grass we may still have to AstroTurf it.

I would love a garden full of plants and a meadow lawn but it's not just my garden. It's a safe pace for my children and the only outside space DS2 has because he can't go out the front like the other kids.

snoggle · 05/06/2014 10:10

DSs nursery has Astro in the garden- I wouldn't hve as 1st choice myself but it has a lot of benefits if your garden is predominantly a play space. They still have some growing areas and pots too, but just means that it doesn't turn into a trampled bog, and it looks fine. There are some trees in the garden which poke through it. My only reservation would be I still have a slight mark on my forehead from a spectacular AstroTurf slide at university. :o but that was a long time ago, it's probably much better now!

My builder says he knows a good turf dealer so I will take a look at prices. Thanks for the ballpark per turf. I think meadow should be fine, the rest of the garden is quite..... Natural -looking :o

OP posts:
GotAnotherQuestion · 05/06/2014 10:18

Definitely tamper down to level. When we laid our own lawn, DH and FIL did it and failed to level the ground properly. They stamped around a bit but didn't do it hard enough and before long dips and valleys grew all over so it looks like a builder rubbish tip with grass growing over it - a nightmare to try and mow.

Deverethemuzzler · 05/06/2014 11:10

Ha ha reading this I am realising my idea of 'fine' probably falls below everyone else's
So best take advice from the professional on the thread Grin

I think it's just soooooo much better than it was before.

upupupandaway · 05/06/2014 12:08

The first lawn I ever laid, before becoming a gardener ( ok it was only for a year) was so uneven, the mower would shave off huge patches , ended up having to lift it and start all over again. It's not easy, it's bloody hard work but it's all about the preparation,

peggyundercrackers · 05/06/2014 16:38

we did our lawn which was about the same size as yours - it took about a day. it was paving stones before we started so once they were lifted we needed to get quite a bit of topsoil in before we started. Once we dug the soil in we left it for a while to settle but if we had to do it again we would leave it longer or soak it so it settles quicker - when raking it flat it we didn't use a line and stakes to do it, we went by our eye and it worked out OK. if you don't soak the earth or leave it to settle naturally it will do this itself when you get a heavy rain and you will get shallow troughs. the edges are the most important piece, make sure they are as tight as you can get them - they need to butt up against the other piece without any space. if you are putting a piece down at the edge don't lay a small piece, lay a bigger piece and cut the 2nd piece in - when cutting in lay the piece you are going to put down over the piece you are cutting then cut both together, that way your cuts should match and there should be no gaps when the turf is laid.

finally try not and walk on it for a week or so once its down

p.s. someone up thread said to water it copiously every night - I would water it but don't give it too much, you don't want to turn your new lawn into a marsh - unless its a south facing lawn with absolutely no shade and its 30+ deg every day it wont dry out that quickly.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page