Grass seed vs Turf...

[EdieMcredie]

...DP took the slabs up in the garden at the weekend as we would like garden to be baby friendly for 8 month old DD. That was a feat in it's self really due to the fact tjhat under the slabs was another layer of concrete and under that there appears to be some shingle.

We have already forked out £100 for skip.

What is easier and cheaper? Seed or turf? We know very little about gardening...can you tell??

I'd recommend turf. Although it is much more expensive, hey presto, instant lawn, and you won't be spending the next six weeks screaming at birds to Get orff my laaannndd!

turf is weird looking, get seed

Turf is quicker, more expensive but more likely to give you a decent result.

Seed is cheaper, takes longer and can all be eaten.

seed is cheaper, but takes ages to grow and birds love it, turf expensive, but you can enjoy this summer

sorry x post

Right. How long would it take approx for us to get a decent bit of grass if we did the seed now?

What price difference are we talking?

couple of weeks for seed, i used tuf grass, dirt cheap to buy and hardy and green.

you have to flatten the area first, remove stones etc then cover with topsoil. then just throw it on. birds weren't really interested in it. though they liked the grass seed i bought that was for shady areas.

Oh well I think that has settled it, has to be seed. What do you flatten it with?!

i just stomped on it , is it a large area? you could use a roller (hire one) or a plank of wood to level it.

A roller if you can borrow one or planks of wood, one plank would do, you stand on it & wiggle about and go bit by bit.
Then hope it rains a lot as you have to keep the seeds fairly damp - too dry and ours died 1st time.

Much much cheaper than turf and in about 3-4 weeks you should have decent growth but you won't be able to stand on it, it's fairly fragile at first & needs to be 5cm high if I remember correctly, before you give it the first gentle cut which encourages stronger growth. Def look for robust sort when buying seed.

If you have the money, turf's a lot easier but new grown grass is lovely. You can always re-seed the barer bits too.

x-post southeastastra, I stomped too

That's prob why I had so many bare bits to re-seed.

Ha ha. Stomping sounds good! We could probably find a plank of wood somewhere...

Thanks guys, going to be buying some seed then.

There will probably be some majorly stupid questions following...

Gosh Edie - we saw you at Cbeebies Live you were fab!! I expect you get lots of rain there so that should help.

Please keep us informed on your lawn's progress.

Oh thankyou , im a little shy at public events.

I will keep you all informed, indeed.

Ahem - I would like to pronounce myself an expert on these matters
We are about to seed. The Gardeners World lot reccommend you dig over the ground, then rake and remove all stones and weed roots. Stomp it all over as per Charlie Dimmock and Alan Titchmarsh on Groundforce (lots of shuffling and big boots).

Then rake again to check there are no big dips.

Then throw seed on as per packet instructions.

Scare Birds and cats off for a few weeks - old cds on string are supposed to work well.

I will let you know how ours gets on. I do know you have to water it everyday if it does not rain.

Sounds easier than turfing, I have to say.

Will probably start it this weekend or next.

Right so we did the seed.

Raked and flattened garden, watered, spread seed (as well as poss but not great). But then we watered with some lawn feed (didn't realise until we got home it was for lawns that are already there DOH).

Covered in net but cat already used as toilet...

Plus there are sooo many little stones that we just couldn't remove.

Please tell me it will be half decent