Raise the lawn area by about 6 inches - gotchas & advice?

edanto

I'm on the final part of a garden renovation; have put in a new patio and fence, and now would like to seed a lawn.

I'd like some advice about the steps involved, and what to watch out for. The area to be grassed is about 8m x 9m and needs to be raised by about 12-15cm, it's very uneven at the moment. It's also very weedy at the moment, it has been neglected since I started the patio many moons ago.

There are a few trees and shrubs at the current level; young apple, ash and gooseberries (4 yrs) and 2 older ones (about 20-30y), and I'm concerned that if I don't raise them to the new level (at least the young ones), then submerging the trunk in topsoil could damage/kill them. I'm unsure about it; maybe moving them will cause more damage? All considered, I'm planning to move them as things stand.

The plan at the moment is

- move young trees to new height
- lay in patio pieces for small path at the right height (little hardcore, sand and cement base, needs to be level for the thin limestone "flags")
- fork and turn the whole garden, lift as many weeds as possible and bin them
- rake out any stones
- spread out & flatten the new topsoil
- depending on time, make some boxes for raised beds (veg)
- spread grass seed
- keep moist for a fortnight

Are any of them in the wrong order, or just the wrong thing to do altogether?

Do I need to wait between spreading out the new topsoil and spreading the seed?

Should I try and find a heavy roller to flatten the topsoil, or can I flatten it just by walking it?

Drainage is fine in the garden at the moment, I sunk about 10 little pits of hardcore around the walls back when I thought the fence would be supported by concrete bases (I ended up just securing it to the wall to avoid the posts rotting); either way there hasn't been any puddles in the garden since, and there used to be before the stone pits.

Any tips on where to buy the grass seed?

Topsoil is getting delivered this evening, gonna belt into this for the weekend!

All advice welcome.

arthur daly

Spray the weeds don't bother digging or removing weeds.
Put in topsoil rake it level,sow grass give a little rake over and wait
Any humps and hollows that appear later fill in with sand

arthur daly

Spray the weeds don't bother digging or removing weeds.
Put in topsoil rake it level,sow grass give a little rake over and wait
Any humps and hollows that appear later fill in with sand

edanto

thanks. Am I on the right track with moving the trees to the new height?

And do I need to wait long after spraying the weeds to put in the new topsoil? (ie will have the topsoil tonight, can I spray weeds tomo morning and put the topsoil straight on?)

Any recommendations for a type of grass seed (gets a decent amount of sun) or spray for the weeds?

I was planning to avoid spray for vague green reasons.

wildlifeboy

leave the trees alone they will be fine. spray the weeds today but it will have minimal effect if you are sowing tomorrow. I reckon just hoe them out and roll the topsoil over it. the grass should be establish by the time the weeds get a foothold and by then you can keep them down with the mower