Concrete jungle - what next?

[LondonNQT]

Our 40sqm yard back garden was concreted over by the previous owners with two long, straight borders along the sides.

We’ll soon be removing all of this and I’d like to lay the centre section as lawn with some curved borders along the side and potentially a decked or paved seating area in the spot that gets the last of the afternoon sun.

Before I merrily trot off and order a few tons of topsoil to replace the concrete what am I missing? Do I need to add a layer of drainage/chippings and then the topsoil? Is there anything I should do now, like drip watering systems and a waterbutt, that I’ll be thankful for later? Do drought tolerate turf options exist or am I better seeding lawn from scratch if I want this?

Total and utter gardening novice here - garden will be used by young children, one cat and their incumbent humans. Any guidance greatly appreciated.

What an exciting project! I got totally hooked gardening in my first house, and now it’s my favourite pastime. This despite it being a new build, with a back garden that was full of builders rubble and very hard to work with.

Personally, I’d get the concrete up then assess what is underneath. When you break up the concrete, don’t be tempted to dig the chippings into the earth and definitely do NOT add more. Often, rubble in the soil aggregates over time and causes a virtually impenetrable layer, causing significant drainage problems. Grass likes to have its roots in soil, and ideally you want a good depth of good quality topsoil without stones - at least 4 inches - and ideally beneath the topsoil you won’t just have a layer of hardcore, you’ll have earthy subsoil. If you do have builders rubble or hardcore under the existing topsoil (once you have revealed it beneath the concrete) you can still try laying grass, but you will find it is harder to establish due to the drainage issues.

We took up a vast layer of ornamental stones in my current home (previous owners were old people with dogs owned the house, they just tipped stones everywhere!) and we spent a lot of weekends manually sifting out the small ones. Then we left the soil for a few months before laying turf and I’m glad we did, as it was full of brambles which emerged and we were able to fully dig out these and the major weeds before we put the new turf down. Also you don’t want to be laying turf in August (research good times of year to lay turf).

Look at your immediate neighbours’ gardens. Do they have successful lawns? If your house faces north, you may find it is fully shaded by your house in winter so grass will become damp and mossy, but in summer that shade will help a little to protect it from the drought and searing heat until the hottest part of the year when the sun is overhead. If your garden is south facing, then you will find the lawn needs help earlier and longer in the year to protect it from drought (letting it grow long is the best thing).

Regarding the borders, are the current borders thriving? You can dig down to sample what’s underneath, it will give you a guide what you’ll find under your concrete - if the existing borders sit over the top of a layer of rubble, it’s a guide that the concrete likely does too (although gardens can be rubble in some areas, earthy in others, depending whether the builders had to level off the land to build). I have grown very successful borders over rubble, but it was so free-draining it severely limited plant choice. Hopefully it’s a problem you won’t have.

And again look at your neighbours all around the area to see what is growing well. If you see a pretty garden, compliment the owner and ask about key plants if you aren’t sure what they are.

im such a fan of ripping up concrete and letting the earth breathe again through its green lungs. Hope you have lots of fun and success.

Some great advice from @HeartofTeFiti

Whereabouts in the country are you? And are you at the top or bottom of the hill?

If you are to the north and/or west of the country you need to plan for short droughts and long floods. If in the south east it's vice versa.

In either case you want as much organic matter in the soil as you possibly can, as it holds onto moisture and nutrients well.

To reduce waterlogging on grass, you want to have layers in the soil - a rich layer of manure, then a layer of drainage (eg sand) then top soil with grass sown on top or lay turf. The idea is the rich bottom layer encourages the roots to grow down. If you're on top of a hill in the south east I'd skip the drainage layer though and just go for really really good topsoil as the grass will always be on the dry side.

But also consider whether you really want a lawn. It's hard to imagine gardens without them but they are so hard to keep nice. In a hot summer they are a depressing scorched brown, in winter they are a boggy quagmire you can't walk on. If your family are going to use it as a playing surface then it's worth it. If not, consider having wide winding paths through the space with seating nooks built into them, and have the rest of the ground planted.

Once you have the ground prepared, choose fairly robust plants to start with (lavender, roses, rosemary etc) as they will thrive while you continue to improve the soil. Every new plant needs lots of care in its first year or two - especially trees which must be watered generously at least every week. Keep on top of the watering while everything is establishing and add more compost and manure to the garden every six months you'll have a wonderful oasis in no time.

Ps definitely put in waterbutts. I don't know about drip irrigation but I would think you need to have your topsoil in before you can lay it

Plan for a water butt now! Collecting rainwater is so useful, and diverts at least a little bit of water away from your waste drainage. Very helpful when there is a hosepipe ban too. Plus plants love rainwater so much more than mains water, I use it to water some of my picky indoor plants as well.

This is all so helpful - exactly the sort of detail I was after! Much appreciated.

I’m so excited and have, of course, started looking at plants already. But knew I needed to get some foundations down or it’d all go to pot!

And start a compost heap! It'll be so good for improving your soil and you can start today - no need to wait for any other garden stuff to be done.