Recover garden after building work?

[wohmum]

We’re coming to the end of an extension build abs both front and back garden are completely trashed from boards , skip diggers, rubble. They were previously grass/ moss. We’re on heavy London clay soil

My question is how do I bring them back to life on spring? Can I just leave and hope with seed? Or do I need to dig them over ?

If they were grass/moss, don’t you want a professional to come in and make them decent? I’m sure you dont need to plant moss

No, don’t want moss, but can’t afford a professional to fix yet - just want a usable garden next summer ,

Tho I suspect getting it turfed might be the best/ cheapest in the long run!

I would like to know this too! I tried to put down some soil and seeds but after a promising start, the frost came and that was the end of that! I am going to try again in the spring. I am going to poke lots of holes in the ground and scarify like mad. Then top soil and over seed.

I don't want to pay a professional as no money to after the extension. Hope someone will put in some tips.

If the levels are all as you want them then the simplest option might be to heavily rake in grass seed now that will grow in the spring giving you a lawn. Cheap too. Turf in the spring might give a nicer finish but is more money (and unless looked after the moss comes back anyway!).

We dug over, raked, seeded, loved and cared for one patch of our garden. For various reasons in another area we just started mowing where the weeds grew.

After a couple of years you can't tell which side is which.

If it was caused by the builders being there, surely they should be repairing it for you? That's what ours did! Completely returfed our back garden once they'd finished.

I honestly think you need to dig it over and sieve out the brick, lumps of concrete, iron bars and wires the builders have left. If you find any soil contaminated with diesel or oil, dig it out and bag it up, ask the council refuse dept where to take it.

You can get a small rotary garden sieve, which is very slow, or hire a Trummel/Trammel/Trommel machine

It can be done with a home-made screen of steel mesh, but on London clay it would need a lot of manual effort to break it up.