How I Created
a New Lawn

Page updated: 29 July 2004

I'm sorry I haven't finished this page – yet !!!!
Ask on my forum if you want info – that'll push start me to finish this !

I'm no expert on creating a new lawn. This page just describes how I created a new lawn successfully by sowing grass seed.
Many of the methods are the same for turfing, but since I haven't done turfing, I'm not going to mention it !.
What is, I think, slightly unusual, is that I pre-germinated the grass seed before sowing.
This has many advantages over just sowing with dry grass seed. It certainly worked for me.

Contents List - Click on one or just scroll down

Preparing the Soil

The tasks you need to create a new lawn:

Dig and/or rotovate
Level the site
Compact the soil to prevent later uneven sinking
Rake to form a fine tilth into which to sow
Feed the soil
Pre-germinate the grass seed
Sow the grass seed
Rake the seed into the soil
Water
Roll
Rake & sweep
Cut

Digging & Rotovating

Because some of the soil had been compacted by lorries driving over it, it needed digging over. I think there are three options for this:

Dig it by hand with a fork. Very hard work, and you need to be fit to start with to avoid injury.

Use a large rotovator, heavy enough to cut into the compacted soil. This would be the easiest, but most expensive option.

Dig it by hand to loosen the soil into clods, and use a lighter rotovator to cut up the clods. Since we have a lightweight electric Flymo rotovator, this is the option I chose.

Levelling

This is not as easy as the books would have you believe. One problem is that you want the final level just above adjacent paths. But, until the soil is compacted and raked, it's not easy to know what level you will achieve. The result is trial and error. Levelling may also involve moving considerable amounts of soil, sometimes with a spade or shovel, sometimes with a rake
Tools for levelling:

Ladders pulled sideways by ropes
Form a 'T' piece with a piece of 4”x2” about 4 ft long, with a piece of 2”x2” for the handle, about 6 to 8ft long
Shovel or spade
Rake

Compacting

This involves walking over the whole area with your weight on your heals, taking small steps, so that practically ever piece of soil has had your weight on it. This will get your calf muscles ! You must rake straight away to prevent the soil becoming solid with the next rain.

Rake

Don't rake too deeply. You should aim for ½” to 1” of tilth. Any deeper and you will suffer from uneven sinking later on.

Mistakes I think I made:

Trying to prepare the soil while it is still too wet. After all the effort of digging and rotovating, after a bit of heavy rain, the soil consolidates, and you have to start all over again.

Standing on the soil that's been rotovated. I found it better to work backwards, or sideways, in sections, so that I didn't need to stand on what I'd just rotovated.

Trying to rake away the stones and create a nice finish too soon before getting the soil sufficiently level. Levelling tends to cover some stones and bring others to the surface. So it's easier to level as much as possible first, and then rake away the stones.

Having dug and/or rotovated the soil needs to be compacted so that when you later walk on the finished grass it doesn't sink unevenly. Again, I did this while the soil was too wet. The drier the better. It's soul destroying to dig & rotovate, then rake, then compact, only to end up with soil that can't be raked easily because the soil has stuck together.

Tending to rake too deeply.

Quantities

Growmore: 2oz/sq yrd = 0.0678 kg/sq m eg a 67sq m area needs 67 x 0.0678 = 4.54 kg

Grass seed: 0.05 kg / sq m eg a 67 sq m area needs 67 x 0.05 = 3.35 kg

Pre-Germinating Grass Seed

For pictures and an updated discussion on this, please check out this thread on my forum:

How to Pre-Germinate Grass Seed

It's a public thread, so anyone can ask questions, or post their experiences & tips.

Watering

©2004 https://www.angelfire.com/hi5/neuralnetwriter/

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