Turning grass to gravel

[MrsSnape]

Is there a cheap and easy way to turn a lumpy, messy piece of grass into a patch of decorative stones? Am I being daft in thinking that all you need to do is cover the grass up and then put the stones on top?

I don't think it is that easy. We are trying to turn gravel into grass at the moment and found the gravel was on top of a layer of very thick polythene. Even though it had been covered for years, by the time we bought the house, there were all sorts of things growing through the polythene. And I believe that grass has very long roots so you have to dig down very deep to get rid of it...

I think if you just cover up the grass it will grow through.

We did this - fairly straightforward - dug up the top layer of grass, stamped the soil down (lots of public shimmying went on ) and then put the stones straight on top. It is a v small area though.

What we didn't do was put one of those growth-proof membranes down first which means that a) there are always little weedlings growing up and b) the stones gradually sink into the soil and have to be topped up (and also c), if we ever decide to do something else with it, eg paving, the stones will be much harder to lift!)

(The grass doesn't grow though - just weeds)