[MisseyB]

Am i crazy to be thinking of laying turf over our existing lawn?

I need to raise the level of the garden but can't bear the idea of stripping the lawn, rotavating the soil and laying turf.

Plus i've small kids so it'll be hard to keep the kids out of the garden long enough to do this ourselves and we've no budget to get in the professionals.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

E

[The Garden Shop]

It can be done, but I would worry about the level of your new lawn after it had time to settled down.

If you can , kill off the existing lawn with a weed killer. A glyphosate weed killer will work fine but keep any children and pests off the treated area for 24 hours, until the weed killer has dried in

After 2 week bring in new topsoil, at least 2 inches and rake level and lightly roll. You can add more topsoil to achieve your desired lawn height.

Next lay turf and water in well.

[Greengage]

I would agree with the a above post but after killing off the existing lawn I would scarify the area then add sand similar to the type used on golf courses to raise the level no more than 50cms otherwise you would have to use soil. rotovating it will also raise it but this will be due to air in the soil and when it settles you will be back to square one. Be careful of so called professionals all you need is a van and trailor + lawnmower to call yourself professional always check out their work from reliable source.

[MisseyB]

Thank you so much for your advice. What you're saying makes perfect sense to me and i'm a lot more confident about tackling the problem now.

I'd love to avoid using the weedkiller if at all possible. Do you think that laying black plastic over the area for the winter would do the same job?

E