turning scrubland into lawn

[markh1]

I am just in the process of acquiring this patch of land at the back of our garden which is approx 110 foot by 60 foot



And I would like to turn into lawn with some flower beds, garden room etc

I am going to remove all the conifers and smaller saplings which will open it up a lot more.

The soil is a heavy clay and the lower parts suffer from waterlogging so I plan to bring in circa 20 tonnes of decent topsoil to level it however before I do that should I apply some commercial grade weedkiller to everything to get rid of brambles and ivy etc or cover it in soil then kill what ever grows through?

Also how do I go about getting the new soil level? I have a lawn lute and a pallet i can tow behind a ride on but how do I judge the levels over a large area? is there some kid of surveying tool for this?

[Simon_GH]

I used grass seed on newly dug clay soil and the grass grew in no time. No watering or specialist attention. Just spread the seed, lightly raked and left to nature. I’ll let others comment on the landscaping - good to keep a few trees if you can for wildlife and they will also help manage excess water in the clay. Looks a great project!

[M1AGM]

If you take out trees you will get movement in the ground as it resettles over time, plus those trees are soaking up water which wont happen if they are gone, so might need to think about drainage, particularly as it is a clay soil. Clay expands when wet and shrinks when dry so depending on the mix in the soil it can be difficult to get a nice flat lawn, again drainage. For levelling - sharp sand is great, and you can seed on to it and grass will take hold. I’ve just done about 1000 sq m with a landscaping rake and lots of sweat and it looks really good. If you want to get the levels perfect then run a builders string line from one side to the other.

Is this land already ‘garden’ in terms of designation?

[netherfield]

Covering with top soil won't get rid of weeds grass types you don't want in your lawn, such as Couch and Yorkshire Fog will come through, Yorkshire Fog doesn't look good in a lawn.

Glyphosate all over, leave it a while and see what comes back, because it doesn't kill the seeds that are already in the ground, then give it another dose.

Looks like you have Ivy on the right of the photo, Glyphosate won't get rid of that.

[biggiles]

markh1 said:

should I apply some commercial grade weedkiller to everything to get rid of brambles and ivy etc or cover it in soil then kill what ever grows through?

Also how do I go about getting the new soil level? I have a lawn lute and a pallet i can tow behind a ride on but how do I judge the levels over a large area? is there some kid of surveying tool for this?

I'd definitely apply some gly to that, you'll have brambles forever otherwise.

Levelling it won't be hugely easy, but dragging around (almost anything) will get it done. What machinery (e.g. digger) will you use to get the 20t of topsoil spread out in the first place? A good digger driver will make the follow-on work much easier.

NB I usually find a topsoil lorry carries around 16t, but depending on access you may need smaller lorries to drop it off. Check a sample first: near us we have one great topsoil supplier and another which is very poor quality. Both are the same price.

[OutInTheShed]

Just layering on topsoil is not a sure way to cure waterlogging.
A tonne of topsoil does not go very far over such an area.
Do you actually want it 'level' or just 'smooth'?

I would be cautious about major use of heavy machinery, it's very good at un-levelling ground.
A chain harrow behind a light compact tractor maybe?


Weedkiller is all very well, but wind and wildlife will provide you with more weed seeds in due course. There's no point getting the ground sterile.

[Simpo Two]

OutInTheShed said:

Weedkiller is all very well, but wind and wildlife will provide you with more weed seeds in due course. There's no point getting the ground sterile.

Ground without plants isn't sterile - it's heaving with trillions of microorganisms and that's what makes it fertile.

The OP seems to be heading for a well-kept lawn, and if so then agricultural weeds won't last long when the emerge because they can't survive the mowing regime. The only things that will survive are - guess what - lawn weeds!

[loskie]

Put a couple of pigs on it and you'll have a freezer full of pork and cleared ground. Thin out the trees don't remove them all they will be removing a lot of wet from the ground.

You need to provide drainage NOT topsoil on wet ground.

Just throw a wildflower and grass seed mix on it and have a semi natural garden/lawn.

[smifffymoto]

3 or 4 pigs would get that done easily.
After you have well turned soil with very few roots.

The old ways are sometimes the best.

[Evanivitch]

Controlled burn. Rotavatar. Roll it. Seed it.

[CambsBill]

netherfield said:

Covering with top soil won't get rid of weeds grass types you don't want in your lawn, such as Couch and Yorkshire Fog will come through, Yorkshire Fog doesn't look good in a lawn.

Glyphosate all over, leave it a while and see what comes back, because it doesn't kill the seeds that are already in the ground, then give it another dose.

Looks like you have Ivy on the right of the photo, Glyphosate won't get rid of that.

it has for me in the past. Just added a bit of washing up liquid to the weedkiller to stop it beeding & rolling off the leaves.

[AlexC1981]

I appreciate it isn't the most pretty copse in the world, but I can't imagine why you would want to replace it with grass. Why do we have such a fascination with lawns in this country? It's so common and boring, and also high maintenance. Don't you already have a lawn in the front part of the garden?

You could make wildlife pond, put up some bird and bat boxes, strew some old logs around, throw wildflowers everywhere. You'll soon have a nice pretty and shaded spot to sit in the hot summer, teaming with wildlife.