In August last year, we bought 21 rolls of turf on a whim to replace a large patch of gravel out the back without a) measuring the garden or b) making preparations beforehand. It took 3 days to de-gravel, de-concrete and then lay the turf which, having been sat outside a local Homebase, was already way past its best.
By some miracle we managed to buy exactly the right amount of turf, and ended up with:
Which, a week later, looked like:
Not bad, eh?
Unfortunately, that lush green look didn’t last. It turns out that if you lay turf on heavy clay soil without digging/preparing the earth first, and then it pees it down with rain for months on end (aka Winter) you end up a mini-swamp and dead grass (hi Flymo!):
It has taken several months of fairly intensive raking, forking (in an attempt improve drainage) and sprinkling handfuls of compost (to hopefully improve the soil) as well as one epic bag of grass seed (10kg “family lawn seed” from B&Q) to give us:
Which, ironically, needs cutting. Again. This grass lark is hard work.
Still. That batch of turf was a bargain.
29 May at 11:34 am
It may well have been hard work but it is certainly worth all your hard work now. The gravel etc is ok when you have no children but imagine all those skinned knees and hands you have prevented now :)
29 May at 12:22 pm
Looking at that, it DOES look good…
29 May at 5:06 pm
That grass looks like it needs you to hold a BBQ. I shall give you consideration due to the whole being a fatty thing, i’ll wait til you’ve lost that extra weight then, you have to have an awesome BBQ ;D
29 May at 5:08 pm
Have you seen our BBQ? It does about 3 sausages at a time :P
29 May at 5:13 pm
Thats fiiiiine, I only want 3 at a time.
29 May at 7:03 pm
It was fine when we were round last! Mmm, BBQ :9
30 May at 3:31 am
I love how the grass looks now =) It takes a lot of time and effort to maintain a grassy yard, especially when there’s crazy weather going on. Usually, grass seed works but I think turf looks a lot better especially after a week since it doesn’t look so spotty.
The bunny is so cute =3 We have those running in our backyard xD
30 May at 6:29 am
Looks good!