Need gardening help/advice

cerastes

I need some advice on how to do certain jobs in my garden.

Firstly, I have a small garden and want to cordon off the concreted/path part of the garden for the dog and do some actual gardening, like lay a lawn and put down some plants.
There is probably between 27-30m square some of which is paved.
The dog hasnt really done damage as such, but being able to walk and poo everywhere, I want to make part of the garden a lawn for my child.

I had intended on paving over what isnt already done, but I prefer a bit of grass than concrete slabs everywhere, plus think it will be nicer for my child to play on.

Firstly, the soil seems like its poor, although its had grass in the past that thrived.
I want to get it up and running as quick as possible so dont intend to put seed down and I think turfs that has had grass growing might aid the scrubby thickness of the surface soil, which seems quite hard and mucky.
Where is the best place to get turfs with grass, a relative got someone in to do a job, it looks well from a distance and was better when it was put down, but gradually parts started to sink and the grass is very coarse, it was probably the soil/surface but it was supposed to be done. After them paying a good bit for that, I was thinking of going to B&Q for the turfs, but would prefer if I can get better quality elsewhere, although thats what my relative was supposed to be getting and there are already biggish tufts of coarser taller grass coming up.

I have ruled out paying for it to be done as I cant afford to go that route anyway, so have to do it myself, Im in Dublin
What preparation work do I have to do? Ive scrapped the surface scrubby grass off, I can only see two thick perennial roots, I will have to deal with them if they come through.
Scratch the soil surface? water it? sprinkle a bit of compost?
Has the dog poo/wee done harm/good? ie seems very few weeds, like 1 main one and the roots mentioned.

Once any turf is down I intend to keep the dog off that part by putting up a fence/cordon.

Ive further questions but if I can tackle the grass bit first.

cerastes

Nothing? I hate gardening myself, its just a, it has to be done for me.
I thought in this forum I might get some advice?

Red Hare

Hi Cerates - I have never laid grass on a roll - I've only sown a couple of small lawns from seed so my advice is limited.


You need to prepare your soil better before laying any seed or turf down.

1) -you should spray the area with weedkiller and let this die back - I never did and things worked out ok ( because of step 2) ( I hate chemicals and I couldn't afford the weedkiller and sprayer)

2) Dig the area you want to lawn over - buy/ borrow a spade and fork. Digging and forking the soil helps the grass seed/turf to put down roots and grow into a healthy lawn, it also gets rid of the weeds.
Dig up soil with the spade and use the fork to break up the soil until it crumbles and to separate the roots of weeds from the soil.
Collect up all the roots of weeds, put them in a bin liner and then out with the rubbish ( theyre not good to put into the brown waste for recycling). If you dont get rid of the weed roots they will grow again.

When youv'e dug all you garden and you think you have done a great job - then dig and fork it again. Its really important to dig and fork the soil - not just scrape.

3) Buy or Borrow a rake and rake the soil - pick up any big stones and pile them away.

4) At this stage you are ready to plant - I would recommend seed especially at this time of year and if you are on a budget but you could also use turf. There are different types of turf and different types of seed.
Lawn no 1 as far as I know is very fine - like a front lawn not used that much
no 2 is medium -
no 3 is rougher and tougher - for play - back lawn

Be careful where you get your turf on a roll because some can be very rough like field grass. I cant recommend because I never did it but my neighbour who did use a roll on lawn got it delivered from Galway - her son ordered it online and it worked out really well - its down about three years now. They dug the plot well before planting.

You need to keep turf watered especially if its hot so get it done now asap before it gets too warm!

cerastes

Thanks, that's a great help, I hadn't really planned on digging it

Johnboy8184

Landscape depot in tallaght sells the roll out turf €4 per yard, you order it in advance so it's fresh.

cerastes

Johnboy8184 wrote: »

Landscape depot in tallaght sells the roll out turf €4 per yard, you order it in advance so it's fresh.

Thanks, I'll look it up, not far but never heard of it.

tampopo

The best ongoing thing you could do is walk your dog more frequently so it does its poos outside....

cerastes

tampopo wrote: »

The best ongoing thing you could do is walk your dog more frequently so it does its poos outside....

My dog does poo outside?!
I actually prefer let her poop in the garden than have to pick it up elsewhere anyway. But the dog can't be walked all the time, at times the dog is in the garden and will walk and urinate on the non paved areas.

looksee

The advice about digging and clearing the ground is dead on, but don't get the impression you should be left with loose soil as though you were going to plant veggies. Having got all the weeds out and put down some sort of organic material to improve the ground you need to firm it down a bit. This will avoid having dips and hollows when it does settle, and will give the roots something to hang on to as they grow.

There is some good advice here about turf http://www.bridgeturflawns.ie/lawncare.php - I don't know anything about them, but what they are saying is good. Seeding needs much the same care.