Is this a dream? Growing grass in a bed?

[Devonshiregal]

Ok so I do not know the first thing about gardening, just gonna put that out there before I ask this…

I have a garden which is not growable - bad soil, light, concrete, all sorts. It would need to be gutted and even then not sure.

so you know how people grow flowers in flower beds - like the raised beds with wood round the edge, and they put that black material (yeah seriously don’t know anything about gardening) and then put soul in and add the flowers and they grow, right?

well couldn’t I just make a massive raised bed the size of my entire garden and put soil in then lay turf over the top? So it would be a giant raised flowerbed but would essentially be a lawn?

like just write off what’s underneath and just have a lawn a foot or two higher than the ground?

My garden is not massive, think normal British terraced house small size. And I don’t see why if flowers will grow in a bed, lawn won’t?

perhaps this is the most stupid question ever but I need to know!

It is not a stupid question. I think the black stuff is a membrane which suppresses the weeds and allows some moisture through. What you describe is unlikely to have sufficient drainage to allow a lawn to survive,

You could try it with low growing plants, which are sort of like weeds. Things like nasturtium and fleabane don’t need much help. In the winter is is quite likely to look a bit waterlogged. I think wild prairie planting is the way to go, hopefully it will give you year round interest.

I seee… I want it as a lawn to play on. Could you just pop some holes in the bottom? Let the water drain through? But if that’s not possible perhaps your idea would be nice to look at at least! Right now it’s awful. Thank you!

Is the concrete a solid slab across the garden, or is it lumps here and there?

I think it could work, people grow grass on rooftops without too much underneath the turf.

Take a picture of your soil. What’s there at the moment? Nothing but bare ground?!

I think it would grow ok, but if it's so shallow won't it get very quickly ruined when you step on it/play/kick a football. I don't think anyone steps on the roof grass (not that I've seen anyway!).

I dont have grass I have chamomile and creeping thyme. It grows anywhere even over gravel and looks really nice.

If you want grass you need to prepare the soil and get it rotovated and levelled.

You mentioned light in your OP. That won't be solved by a raised bed!

What's the light issue -overhanging tree, or houses obscuring the sun?

Green roof plants tend to be sedums and alpines, with maybe a bit of grass. Not a solid lawn.

You'll need to clear the concrete.

Adding membrane would be fairly pointless, just a layer of topsoil would sort the bad soil problem without adding plastic.

Light won't be helped by adding anything (except growlights).

Raising the soil level will cause damp problems in the house if it goes right up to the walls.

Probably not. Grass has shallow roots - that’s why you can buy turf, that’s as deep as the roots go. Buy in a load of topsoil, level it off nicely, get a turf which has hard wearing grasses.

The problem comes if it’s a solid concrete slab, drainage might be a problem.

Caveat - this is all logical thought. I’ve never done this. I might be completely wrong

Adding membrane would be fairly pointless, just a layer of topsoil would sort the bad soil problem without adding plastic. Agreed

Raising the soil level will cause damp problems in the house if it goes right up to the walls. Important point.

Lumps and an old path dotted about and lots of gravel bits

it wouldn’t go up to the house as there’s a patio type area which separates the garden.

Ooh I’m liking your positive attitude though - perhaps I’ll keep imagining that this might work instead of paying a fortune to rip the place to pieces!

its basically concrete bits, broken brick, gravel all scattered over what was, 10 years ago, a lawn

I'd be inclined to remove the bigger lumps. It will be easier to create a level surface for the lawn

For what it's worth, I've solved a winter mud problem on my "lawn" by creating a path of bricks set in sand a cm below the grass level. The grass is now growing over the bricks, albeit slowly, so about 2/3 of the path width is covered with grass, and I can just run the lawnmower over it when I do the rest of the lawn. And that's with no added topsoil.

How deep?

It rained last night just go out and see how long it takes to dig a metre square back to soil.

Collect the top bits of by hand scooping as best you can. Then get a fork in and just try to tease it rather than use a spade.

Just see how far it goes and how long it takes. 1m2 is large enough that if it works you will get an idea of a) how long it takes by hand. B) what level of waste your up against if you get it scraped.

I think you should get a gardner/landscaper round to quote for clearing all the garden out properly and get a lawn laid professionally otherwise i think you are wasting your time.

post a photo so we can see what your garden looks like.

I’ve done this in a patch of my small city garden, mainly for the dog. I used a b&q raised bed kit on top of a lumpy concrete/god knows what flat base. I did put weed membrane down, mainly because I thought if it didn’t work out it would be easier to remove the soil and do something else.

So I put top soil on, shoved some lawn topsoil on the very top. I then put grass seed down, covered it with plant fleece and voila a tiny lawn was born!! Last summer I used scissors to maintain it but the dog ruined it over the winter and I know I didn’t look after it properly.. This spring I pulled all the old grass out and put down wildflower/grass seed mix, one whole wildflower bloomed and it looked rubbish.

So then I put clover seed down. I’ve been a bit useless this year at watering it so it’s looking a bit sad but that my fault. I’m waiting until the autumn to re seed it with lots more clover. I’m really pleased with the clover, It looks greener, you don’t have to mow it and it’s more hardy. You can get grass and clover seed mix if you prefer.

So long story short, it is possible but needs some work to make it look good.

Have you got a photo? And yes what is the issue with light? If its really shaded it probably won't do that well. Our lawn wouldn't take although we'd used a shade variety, we cut down some trees this year and its doing really well.
Sounds like if it's lumps there is drainage? But if not breaking it up in places so there is drainage would be a good plan.
You don't really need a weed membrane by the sounds of it.
Break it up a bit, add topsoil, put turf down. Water lots to start with. Certainly worth a go.
Grass doesn't need deep roots.

It’s like the previous owner had shares in a concrete company and just dumped random bits all over the garden. There’s no thought to it. Imagine you took a bucket of conceret and thew it on the floor. And do that 10 times across a small/medium former lawn. Then drop a few buckets of gravel all over it for good measure. It would take a digger or at least some strong men and a pneumatic drill

Oooh do you have a photo? Can you walk on it?

Yeah it was coming out at like 6grand just for clearing

We had a concrete path and concrete covered brick borders.

We removed the borders, then we smashed up the concrete a bit and put soil over the top.

It does tend to dry out a lot quicker than the rest of the garden in the summer.