Rotovating my lawn - how difficult?

bailey13

Hey y'all
Grass front and back is woeful, was suffering from lack of light and lots of moss in the damp patches but just had a guy come in and do a massive heavy clear-out job so now the lawn will have a chance, I think.

It probably needs rotovating and re-doing though. He would do it for Eu400 (which I don't have) for front (approx 5 sq. m.) and back (approx 25 sq. m.).

Question is this: how easy or not is a rotovator to use, for this job? (65kg woman - fairly fit) Approx how much at local hire-all for eg 1 weekend. Also would I need to put killer down on the existing grass and leave for a time before rotovating? Also how soon could I put seed down etc?
Not averse to some hard labour if I save the money.
Cheers

Sonnenblumen

bailey13 wrote: »

Hey y'all
Grass front and back is woeful, was suffering from lack of light and lots of moss in the damp patches but just had a guy come in and do a massive heavy clear-out job so now the lawn will have a chance, I think.

It probably needs rotovating and re-doing though. He would do it for Eu400 (which I don't have) for front (approx 5 sq. m.) and back (approx 25 sq. m.).

Question is this: how easy or not is a rotovator to use, for this job? (65kg woman - fairly fit) Approx how much at local hire-all for eg 1 weekend. Also would I need to put killer down on the existing grass and leave for a time before rotovating? Also how soon could I put seed down etc?
Not averse to some hard labour if I save the money.
Cheers

Why not ring your local hire shop and check hire charges, most offer weekend rates. There are plenty of threads about ground preparation/installing lawn, but in the case of normal herbicdes, usually 7 -10 days after spraying and rotovating area before it would be practical to seed area.

Based on the areas indicated, the proposed charges would appear high.

heinbloed

Digging with a spade and level raking takes about 1 hour per m2 for the untrained person.
If your ground is prone to congestion work in some grid, timber shreddings or the like.

fryup

don't be spending €400 on something you can easily do yourself

get a bag of lawnfeed moss + weedkiller, fling it on your lawn by hand and wait for 7-10 days..you'll begin to see black patches where the moss/weeds were

next - have you got a regular walk behind petrol lawnmower?? if so get one of these from your nearest lawnmower dealer (not B&Q or the like), its a scarfier blade take off the mowing blade and replace it with this, this will gather up the dead moss & tatch..but be warned your lawn will be looking barren afterwards.

Then after that spread some lawn seed on the bare patches rake in some peatmoss & sand with it and give the lawn a damn good watering...and then all going well within a fortnight your lawn should be looking back in shape.

Buford T Justice

If you want to go rotovating it, Sam Hire will do one on a day's hire for somewhere in the region of €50, but be warned, its a tough job to do, especially with a front and back garden to do.

HardyEustace

Given the area, I think you'd be better off digging it manually.

If I was to invest in anything it'd be a few shovels, a couple of beers and a bbq and get some pals round to help you for a Saturday and/or Sunday afternoon. You'll get the whole lot done very quickly.

Vegeta

I have just completely overhauled my back garden which is about the size of yours.

First things first, was the moss growth from lack of attention or due to an underlying dampness issue?

Have you fixed the dampness issues? If not then you may have issues in those spots.

I had to put in a few drainage trenches in my garden and a sink hole to cure my dampness problem. That was a shovel, pick and spade job and took a very long day with 3 mid twenties males doing the work.

Once that was finished I decided to re-seed the lawn as mine was full of crap like reeds, moss and lots of other weeds.

So I sprayed the whole thing with roundup (took about an hour and a half to get it all well covered several times) and everything in the garden was dead in about 3-4 weeks.

Once all the growth was dead my Dad turned over all the sod and a bit deeper with a fork. This took him, a well seasoned worker, about a day for the back garden.

I then picked all the large rocks, sticks and branches from the garden which took about 2-3 hours with the help of a friend. I only wanted to get rid of the rocks which I thought may damage a rented rotivator/cultivator so I didn't remove the really small stuff.

Then rented a rotivator/cultivator locally for 40 quid. It did the back garden in about 2 hours with my Dad operating it. Honestly it is not a piece of machinery I would have liked to use myself as I am not known for my skills with my hands. It did not look like tough physical work as the machine was self drive but you'd want to have your wits about you and be switched on using it. As with all power tools I suppose. You're walking over loose uneven ground and there are blades at the rear digging up the earth.

The big problem I saw was that because my garden is walled, we had to put this thing in reverse every now and then, where it drives at the operator, blades first, while the operator is walking on soft chopped up soil.

So it was not physical but it was a lot more dangerous to use than say a lawnmower

It did a great job though and after it was done I picked even more stones and sticks. I didn't go nuts but just removed any of the big obvious ones which would potentially damage the lawnmower blades. Again maybe 1-2 hours labour here

EDIT:
Forgot to mention that then my father raked and levelled the soil a few days after the rotivator was used.

Once the ground is ready for seeding it is recommend to leave it fallow for 3-4 weeks and let any weed remaining a chance to show themselves. Zap the whole lot again with weed killer and then a week later put down you grass seed.

I am currently on week 2 of my fallow period and look forward to sowing the seed.

Sonnenblumen

fryup wrote: »

don't be spending €400 on something you can easily do yourself

get a bag of lawnfeed moss + weedkiller, fling it on your lawn by hand and wait for 7-10 days..you'll begin to see black patches where the moss/weeds were

next - have you got a regular walk behind petrol lawnmower?? if so get one of these from your nearest lawnmower dealer (not B&Q or the like), its a scarfier blade take off the mowing blade and replace it with this, this will gather up the dead moss & tatch..but be warned your lawn will be looking barren afterwards.

Then after that spread some lawn seed on the bare patches rake in some peatmoss & sand with it and give the lawn a damn good watering...and then all going well within a fortnight your lawn should be looking back in shape.

Not the way to go!:eek:

fryup

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Well, the OP didn't post any pics of his lawn so we don't know what condition its in.

Personally speaking my lawn was in dire straits with moss & weeds covering 50% of it as well as bare patches, so i just did what i mentioned above and now its looking ace.

bailey13

Vegeta wrote: »

I have just completely overhauled my back garden which is about the size of yours.

First things first, was the moss growth from lack of attention or due to an underlying dampness issue?

Have you fixed the dampness issues? If not then you may have issues in those spots.

I had to put in a few drainage trenches in my garden and a sink hole to cure my dampness problem. That was a shovel, pick and spade job and took a very long day with 3 mid twenties males doing the work.

Once that was finished I decided to re-seed the lawn as mine was full of crap like reeds, moss and lots of other weeds.

So I sprayed the whole thing with roundup (took about an hour and a half to get it all well covered several times) and everything in the garden was dead in about 3-4 weeks.

Once all the growth was dead my Dad turned over all the sod and a bit deeper with a fork. This took him, a well seasoned worker, about a day for the back garden.

I then picked all the large rocks, sticks and branches from the garden which took about 2-3 hours with the help of a friend. I only wanted to get rid of the rocks which I thought may damage a rented rotivator/cultivator so I didn't remove the really small stuff.

Then rented a rotivator/cultivator locally for 40 quid. It did the back garden in about 2 hours with my Dad operating it. Honestly it is not a piece of machinery I would have liked to use myself as I am not known for my skills with my hands. It did not look like tough physical work as the machine was self drive but you'd want to have your wits about you and be switched on using it. As with all power tools I suppose. You're walking over loose uneven ground and there are blades at the rear digging up the earth.

The big problem I saw was that because my garden is walled, we had to put this thing in reverse every now and then, where it drives at the operator, blades first, while the operator is walking on soft chopped up soil.

So it was not physical but it was a lot more dangerous to use than say a lawnmower

It did a great job though and after it was done I picked even more stones and sticks. I didn't go nuts but just removed any of the big obvious ones which would potentially damage the lawnmower blades. Again maybe 1-2 hours labour here

EDIT:
Forgot to mention that then my father raked and levelled the soil a few days after the rotivator was used.

Once the ground is ready for seeding it is recommend to leave it fallow for 3-4 weeks and let any weed remaining a chance to show themselves. Zap the whole lot again with weed killer and then a week later put down you grass seed.

I am currently on week 2 of my fallow period and look forward to sowing the seed.

Thanks everybody for the info. Vegeta - yikes - sounds like a BIG job you've done. I'm suddenly coming over all lazy.....
the dampness was caused by large items blocking light to the lawn - the patches that got sun aren't so bad actually, just quite impacted and probably hasn't had decent treatment since this house was 'born' approx 23 years ago.
So, think I'll definitely treat with an herbicide and subsequently rotovate, must I fork/level it before I rotovate, anyone?

simonj

Rather than use a fork or spade, try an Azada (http://www.chillingtonhoes.com/)

It will speed things up and make the job easier.

Im in Connemara where the ground is very tough and unforgiving, its too rocky to hire or buy a rotavator - so I swear by the Chillington tools.

padi89

simonj wrote: »

Rather than use a fork or spade, try an Azada (http://www.chillingtonhoes.com/)

It will speed things up and make the job easier.

Im in Connemara where the ground is very tough and unforgiving, its too rocky to hire or buy a rotavator - so I swear by the Chillington tools.

I was looking at these i have a couple of mini ones and a small mattock i use because my back isn't good. What ones do you use there seem to be so many?

simonj

I use the heavy duty one for hacking the crap out of the ground, the good news is they are designed to be easier on the back, its all arm work.

I'm thinking about getting a doubleheaded one now for the raised beds, space is a little tight in places