Dead Lawn... Help!?!

[J.Gatley]

Hi Guys,

First time on here so I will get straight to it.

Basically I have just moved house and currently on the back there is just trimmed down weeds, they were about hip height but before I moved in they were cut back to ground level, I want to level the ground and put new turf down in the spring.

I'm very much a beginner when it comes to gardening, and I was thinking I would start by killing all the weeds off, then hire a rotavator to get the soil up, lay down top soil to get it level and then leave it over winter to ensure all weeds were dead. Then lay the new turf in the spring.

Your opinions and tips would be greatly received! Does it sound as though I'm on the right lines? What is the best way to get my current 'garden' ready for laying new turf? What is the best way of laying new turf?

thanks for your help people!

[echinosum]

I think you need to say where you are as this has an effect on the timings.

When you do the weedkilling, you need to really kill the weeds off including the roots, hence systemic weedkiller like glyphosate. Rotovating before the roots are really dead is an excellent way of progating perennial and difficult weeds. Whether it is too late in the season or just right to do the killing depends upon where you live - you need stuff to be in growth, and you need enough top growth for the plants to take in the systemic weedkiller through the leaves, so your cutting it all back to ground level may have been counter-productive unless it is still all growing strongly in your climate. One application often isn't enough, a second application to kill what comes back may be required. And there will always be seeds of annuals (which is another reason to be wary of a deep rotovation bringing lots of dormant seeds up). Some particularly persistant stuff, brambles or whatever, needs particular attention as a couple of applications of glyphosate doesn't suffice.

[trader4]

Agree with the above and what Bob said. But.... as they pointed out, it's impossible to tell you what to do when you don't say where you're located. If it's cool season grasses and it's Fall now where you are, then you may still have time do it now. But here in the NYC area, for example, it's already getting late to start. You should have killed off everything with glyphosate (Roundup) in late Aug or early Sept. As pointed out above, it may take more than one application to kill everything and the herbicide is less effective at lower temps. If you proceed now, I'd use about a 4% solution to give you a better chance to kill it all. It takes a week plus to die, so you can see spots you might have missed, re-apply, etc.

Then you can seed or lay sod, which is what it appears you want to do. Seeding is less expensive, but takes longer to establish, time you may not have, but who knows because we don't know where you are. For seeding, it may not be necessary to till everything up, bring in topsoil, etc. That depends on what soil you have there now. To seed, if the topsoil is OK, then just killing everything, the core aerating, then seeding with an over-seeder is what I would do. Have done it many times and it works.