Ladnscaping and seeding a lawn

[clodsofclay]

We are in a bit of a pickle. This week we had a lot of work to our garden where we had a digger come in and take out a big old rockery, some trees, some pampas grass and flatten the ground. They also put down some top soil though not as much as we wanted.

The ground is quite wet in some areas (boggy clay - rough with big clods), full of flint/ chalk stones in another area and ok-ish in last bit. The dilemma is:

• Should we plant the lawn seed now (time for it to germinate before winter) and try and fix any problems in the spring
• Spend more time trying to sort it out (pick up stones and break up clods, maybe add more topsoil) and hope we can still seed in a couple of weeks
• Or give up and wait until spring?

Any advice welcome!

The middle one. Esp levelling and taking out stones/breaking up lumps of clay.

Yep, I second that. You may need gypsum and horticultural grit as well as topsoil! I know it's a right PITA and you just want to get on with it, but preparing the ground properly will honestly save you time in the long run!

Thank you! It is a PITA! But we do need to consider the long term view.

I just wanted to update you and let you know that we took your advice . We spent a weekend levelling everything, taking out the worst of the stones and breaking up the clay. The following weekend we got some (loads of) topsoil and spent lots of time preparing the soil. We then seeded the lawn and over the last 4 weeks it has taken beautifully. We have been spoilt with the mild weather and rain. Thanks again.

That's great to have an update .So glad it worked ! Your hard work will be repayed in bucketloads .Well done you .

And encourages me to be patient and plan .