How to transform site into lawn??

Number4

Can anyone step me through what we need to do to get out new site prepared for grass seed (we have had many differing opinions!) .. currently its just leveled but has lots and lots of biggish rocks/stones ...
suggestions have included handpicking the stones (its .6 acre so thats a big task), hiring a stone raker, hiring a leveller (which in theory should bury the stones?), we are nearing the end of our budget so dont want to waste money unnecesssarily on anything that will not be productive

CJhaughey

If you are at the end of your budget, get out there with a a pair of gloves a shovel/rake and a wheel barrow.
Seriously the only way to get a nice finish is to rake the lawn and pick stones by hand.
You could concievably get a mini digger with a rotary trommel bucket to come and sift all the stones out but that would be guaranteed to be expensive.
We handpicked our whole lawn, which is about 100m* 150m of stones and some of them were half the size of the barrow.
It is hard soul destroying work but it is the only way that is cheap and effective, if you try and use a rotovator stones will quickly make sh1te of the blades.

denismac

If its possible try to get a local farmer/contractor to come in and give it a shallow ploughing and when all the large stones have been picked off have him rotavate it. this will save a lot of time and energy trying to do it by hand and shouldn't cost an arm and a leg. The ground is so dry at the moment that it would be impossible to do by hand but is ideal for a machine. The ideal sowing time for seed is fast approaching so if you want grass established for the winter it would be wise to move soon.

Avns1s

Realistically the most effective way of dealing with the size of area you mention is to hire a contractor with a digger and a stone rake. He should level the whole area then rake out the stones and bury them. I did my garden, a bit bigger than 0.6 acres and it took about 3 days with the digger. When finished I just shook the grass seed by hand and used a small tractor and land roller to bury the remaining stones (about 1/2 the size of your hand or less) under the level of the ground. Now have a nice flush of grass just cut for the second time. Think it would have cost about 2,000 all considered. Saved weeks and weeks of labour though.

Pocari Sweat

Must agree, bury the stones big and small. Those fence pole romper stompers (poss. modified) may do the job hitched onto a jeep with a good brazilian lad at it for a few days at 40 euro per day plus sandwiches and a sturdy rake.

Sonnenblumen

Pocari Sweat wrote:

Must agree, bury the stones big and small. Those fence pole romper stompers (poss. modified) may do the job hitched onto a jeep with a good brazilian lad at it for a few days at 40 euro per day plus sandwiches and a sturdy rake.

The minimum wage payable is almost € 8.00/hr, if you're going to give advice make sure it's at the very least legally compliant. As for your suggested approach: well waste of time.

keeffer

If your lawn is levelled.Remove the bigger stones by hand,purchase a couple of loads of sand and some compost that our councils are now producing.In other words bury it in two to three inches of sand/compost mix.Grass will grow quite well in this medium. A wheelbarrow , shovel and rough rake , one weekend and you have a stone free lawn. I did this on a much smaller scale with land drainage and the results were excellent.

Number4

Thanks for all the replies folks, I can see we have some back-breaking work
ahead of us this week, I'm just sorry I didnt post this before the weather broke! .. I am sorry now that I didnt also ask for some advice on grass seed,
i.e what type? half the back will be used as a football pitch whilst I have an idea that I would like a good corner of it to be wild flowers etc but would not be starting on that until next sping so just need to get an even coverage at the moment

CJhaughey

Number4
Yes it is hard work but you will save a lot of money too
Use the old stones to make a rockery for herbs.
Grass seed is best bought in a 20kg sack from the local farm supply place, it is really worthwhile getting the big bag because (a) you have a big area and (b) you will invariably need to reseed some places that haven't taken well due to birds etc.
A good tip for preventing birds from eating the seed is to break open an old video cassette and get the tape out.
Put a few post/poles into the ground at each corner and thread the tape across the lawn(to be) so that the ground is crisscrossed with the tape.
the fluttering deters birds from landing and eating your seed.

TKK

About ten years ago when reclaiming some land four of us handpicked stones in over 12 acres, twice! Now that was soul-destroying.

Avns1s

TKK wrote:

About ten years ago when reclaiming some land four of us handpicked stones in over 12 acres, twice! Now that was soul-destroying.

I can't think of anything worse. 12acres!!! :eek: I know from experience!

Number4

Thanks for that, well we (i.e husband) started on the hand picking at the weekend, its a slow job but at least its going somewhere, can I ask one more question on this, he has now got barrow-full mounds of stones/rocks building up around the place and we are wondering what can these be used for (i.e we will have to put in a garden shed shortly and subsequently build a garage, can we use these as foundations for that?) ... it will save him the bother of constanstly mving them around if we decided on a use for them now

GreeBo

picking is the best option
if you bury them by ploughing they will come back to the top soon enough

CJhaughey

Anything large enough and flat enough can be used to build a rockery and wall for a herb garden, the rocks heat up in the summer sun and hold heat which helps plants grow well.
any small stuff can be used in foundations as long as there isn't too much mud and stuff on them.
I used a lot underneath a deck to level the ground.
Reasonably sized rocks are quite useful to have around for small jobs so I wouldn't dispose of them all just yet.

bigtimecharlie

I'm at the same stage with my back garden. Digging by hand is not beyond me but the ground is like concrete. Anyway, as I'm only doing a small area of the garden in grass ( a deck area and some patio slab's to finish off) I'm considering laying the lawn as I saw in B&Q at €4/sqm. Any thought's on this? Will be checking with them over the weekend as to the cost and availability and any other issue's.

artieanna

picking the stones is the cheapest way to go!!! You can use the stones in the foundation and to create a rockery any leftover can be buried near the football patch at some stage...
buy the grass seed in bulk in co-op farmer stores as cj haughy said and go for hardwearing seed as it will be grand for the football pitch and lawn, it can take wear and tear. Ask for it when you are buying as some grass seed can't take much abuse and you'll end up with bare patches...

You'll forget all the hard work when you have a plush green lawn;)