Laying down a new lawn - some advice needed...

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sticks1977 Melbourne, Australia Oct 08, 2008

I have just had a 50 sq. metre deck built outside that it attached to the side of the house. With all the soil that has been dug out underneath the deck (for clearance purposes), the soil has been placed over the backyard over the top of old weeds and patches of grass.

I am looking to lay some new lawn down, but unsure of how to go about it.

Should I shovel or move the dirt away that is there at the moment and pull out any old weeds and grass, then place the excess dirt back over the area of weeds/grass that has been ripped out? Or should I not worry about these weeds etc. and just lay seed (or the quicker alternative of roll-on instant turf lawn) over the top?

I am unsure of which avenue to take at the moment, I also have the option of rotary hoeing the area and also ripping up any excess weeds with a Dingo Mini Digger - a link is provided below for those that have not heard of one...

http://www.dingo.com.au/default.htm

Any feedback would be welcome, I just do not want the backyard to end up like it has previously with weeds taking over the backyard (as before the excess dirt was put down, they had already taken over the yard!)

Regards, Shaun (Sticks1977)

This message was edited Oct 8, 2008 6:33 PM

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WeeNel Ayrshire Scotland, United Kingdom Oct 08, 2008

You are quite right to be concerned about the weeds comming back through again, they sure will if they are perennial weeds, I dont really know about your seasons much in Australia but the basic prep work will be the same no matter where you are, I would suggest you allow the weeds to start to poke through again, then either spray them with a weed killer or for annual weeds hoe them off as they normally die off when the tops are off them, if you spray them, you may need to do it a couple of times to get them dead, but it will be worth it, after that, you would be best to level off the area using a long narrow board and push/pull it back and forward as you go to level off the top soil, then rake out the lumps and humps that may show up as you work, this will take you a few days depending on the size of the area, but believe me, the better prepared the soil/levels and weeds free the ground is, the better the lawn area will be, if you leave dips or raised parts, then mowing becomes harder and you get bare patches where the mower skims over the high bits and long grass is left in the dips, hope this helps you out a bit. good luck. WeeNel.

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