[lazydayz]

First off our back is very muddy. We had some heavy duty machinery in to remove old dead trees,and so forth and well we had a big job of fixing the slops and dips. we have sorted it with topsoil from nearby.So the back garden has had a big upheaval and i have no clue where to start. Its a very big garden and i was told to try and set the lawn in september.
Ive been advised to get a stone burier to bury the small stone and bring the larger ones to the top.Im told this machine can sow my lawn seed at the same time. So my question is do i have to weedkill by topsoil?i cant see any weeds, if so do i do this before i get the stone burier in?And what should i use?i want something that wont harm my pets.

thanks for reading

Lazydayz

[michael brenock]

if you cant see weed roots then they are not there. You can be sure that weed seeds are present, but go ahead and sow when soil and weather conditions are right. the problem with the stone burier is that it brings up some subsoil and dilutes it with the good top soil. Any weeds that grow afterwards in the lawn usually annuals are wiped out by the lawnmower.
michael brenock horticultural advisor (retired)

[lazydayz]

thanks michael. we had large dips and the ground was so uneven so we added over 80 tonnes of topsoil to the garden so it has a fair depth of topsoil. How deep do those stone buriers go?

[michael brenock]

the stones need to be buried about 30 cms deep and this helps drainage. if there is a big lot of stones there then they will have to be buried deeper. You may end up with a variable lawn from different types of soil but as long as it is good top soil it doesn't matter. september is a good time to sow a lawn but soil conditions must be right. delay the sowing until october or spring if soil conditions are not right.
michael brenock horticultural advisor (retired)

[lazydayz]

cool thanks michael,fingers crossed for some of the predictable weather we get for when the schools are back.