Having wasted time, effort and expense laying new turf on my 28’ x 5’ front lawn, which reverted to uneven moss, weeds etc within a few years, I’m giving up on it. It takes me all my time to summon up the effort to mow it once a month, let alone care for it.
I’ll replace it with pebbles over a porous membrane, and stick some planters on it. I’ve a dozen large pots, full of what I suppose are weeds in various forms. With occasional colour from what I suppose are some form of plant.
Before I dig out the turf and hire a skip, can I just turn it over, spray with strong weed killer, add a few bulk bags of cheap top soil to level out the site, locate membrane then add a few ton of pebbles ? Or does the old turf have to be taken off site ?
I hate gardening. Always have. Always will. Not that I’m lazy. I’d much rather be painting windows, garage doors, building log stores ( a pal is giving me half his old recently felled beech tree this month which I have to move from site, collect and split)
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Is it green? Then mow it. My lawns(?) are more moss, couch and weeds than anything else, but they're green and look like grass. That'll do for me.
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I do. Monthly.
But there is a 15” border on 4 sides. That’s full of allsorts of odd shapes and colours going wild.
And I don’t mean liquorice.
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Enjoy weeding, do you? Because dirt gathers between the pebbles, weed grows in the dirt and then sticks its claws into the membrane. If the pebbles are too big they seem to disappear, if it's gravel it gets b***** everywhere except where it's supposed to be.
PITfA.
Or you could put slabs and clean them each year as well as digging weeds out of the gaps. Or cement the gaps and watch the puddles form as the slabs move and the water can't drain.
Chuck feed & weed on it and just mow it. It is actually the lowest maintenance.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Sun 5 Sep 21 at 23:07
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Ideal for artificial lawn… and it’s green….
Just saying!
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And get one of those robot mowers to save you the effort. Saw some in use in a stately home and they looked very efficient.
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>> Ideal for artificial lawn… and it’s green….
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And after a couple of years it looks like an old carpet somebody has dumped there. Plus I know a house with artificial grass and a few weeds are starting to push through it.
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sounds like they didn't prepare and lay it properly with a decent type of artificial grass.
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My near neighbour removed his front lawn several years ago...replaced it with large pebbles.
Very close inspection yesterday showed no sign of weeds.
Appreciate your reply Captain Negative :-)
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5 foot wide?
That’s not a front lawn.
That’s a border. Or a feature.
And if you think grass takes a lot of maintenance wait to you try 12 planters!
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But 27’ Long !
I’ve at least 12 planters spread over rear patios...all full of weeds.
I may do the same with them...soil, membrane, large pebbles.
Then buy some gnomes with fishing rods. Sorted.
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Blitz it with strong general weed killer. Once it’s died down lay a membrane and stones. Try to chose angular chips to reduce pebbles rolling onto your drive. I did ours twenty years ago and only get the odd weed that I spot spray with killer. Pulling up weeds can work but you risk pulling soil up into the stones and getting more weeds. Our membrane has pulled back a bit from the edges but is otherwise generally sound. We don’t walk in it much which helps.
I also think planters are hard work. If your once a month grass cutting is a pain just wait until you have to water them every day or so in summer. If you want something to break up the gravel I would suggest a very few low maintenance shrubs and set them in the membrane and then lay the chips. Yes you will affect the integrity of the membrane but if you chose plants that reach the ground weeds should not be a big issue as they need light,
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Understood AM.
It’s a level plot, one side adjacent to the front of the house, the other 3 having a low stone wall with coping stones, about 8” above lawn level. Pebbles won’t be going anywhere.
I’ll probably move the turf up to my back lawn at the rear of the property....25 steps up 2 patio levels, but I can dump the cut sods at various places around the perimeter as it’s a much larger lawned area covering the width of the property.
I’ll ask advice from green fingered neighbours as to which low maintenance shrubs to plant before laying the membrane.
I’ll empty most of the weed filled pots at the dump and turn them into beer tokens.
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>>I'll ask advice from green fingered neighbours as to which low maintenance shrubs to plant before laying the membrane.
We did that and was advised to plant giant hosta. It covers a lot of ground and the bees love the flowers, unfortunately slugs and snails love the leaves. Modern, environmentally friendly slug pellets are also friendly to slugs and snails.
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>> Having wasted time, effort and expense laying new turf on my 28’ x 5’ front
>> lawn, which reverted to uneven moss, weeds etc within a few years, I’m giving up
>> on it. It takes me all my time to summon up the effort to mow
>> it once a month, let alone care for it.
28' x 5'????? Thats two passes with a lawn mower. 10 minutes max.
you'll spend more time weeding your piles of gravel.
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But with LLs lack of green fingers any weeds will shrivel if he so much as touches them.
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the weeds are not scared of LL
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Turning turf question - bathtub tom
