Ask Gerry

We have inherited an old bumpy (lethal for kids to fall on) porous tarmac tennis court and the cost of replacement with astroturf is too expensive. Therefore I'd like to replace with grass. Rather than completely dig up and re-seed, is it an option to simply put topsoil over the court and if so, how much is needed for grass to grow?

I had this misfortune of cattle getting on my lawn after i gave its its final mow, there is alot of hoof marks and sliding marks what can i do to repair the lawn especially at this time of the year, spade and repair the sod or sand /soil.

My lawn is 20 m x 20 m . On three sides there is a gravel path and on the fourth is a flower border . On the sides with the path, about 18 inches into the the lawn it starts to slope down to the gravel preventing me from getting a nice defined edge to the lawn .I have seen lots of public gardens with a similar arangement but the lawn stays level and doesnt slope away at the edges . Any explanation ?

Part of my garden has concrete , only a few inches so it will be quite easy to remove so thinking of removing the concrete and digging up the existing grass and planting a whole new lawn. I was wondering when the best time to undertake a project like this is? and with winter approaching should i wait to dig up the grass until early next year or would i have time to complete everything now for September. I am new to gardening so I would appreciate all the steps and instructions you can offer and what I need to do. If you could also reccomenend a very high quality lawn seed.

i had to dig up my lawn.how long will it take to grow back? and what type of seed could i use?

Our new home is apparently set on a 'Bog' it has been ploughed a year or longer ago and is terrible uneven including mossy puddles. Not save for our 2 year old to play in, nor can we mow it. Its that bad. How can we get a nice lawn and vegetable garden without spending our savings?

im trying to figure out where to start a lawn. i have sprayed the lawn, dug it up, and turned it over. the soil doesnt look great, its very uneven with scattered stones. i have left it for 3weeks and any weeds are now gone. im stuck now on what to do. should i get more top soil and even it out that way or would that only bring in more weeds to the garden? or would i be better off getting peat moss and putting it in the areas that need a lift.

We have recently moved to a house in Adamstown and have about 66SQ M back garden. It is shaded by apartments in the winter but we do get sunlight in the summer. The lawn is usually very soggy and wet and the soil seems to be quite compact and clay. The lawn also has a couple of big bumps. I sprayed it with roundup 2 weeks ago and all the lawn is dead now. Following are the steps I am going to take. Please tell me if I am doing the right thing or not.1. Rotovate the whole lawn with a powerful rotovator (8HP) and level it.,3. level it again.4. Dig herringbone pattern trenches for the french drain. Put in perforated pipe and connect teh end of it to surface drainage.5. cover the pipes with pea gravel.6. once all done cover the whole lawn with rootzone sand mix to get 1 inch layer. Level it very very finely.7. Lay the new roll out grass or sow the seeds.I am planning to leave some space for flower beds. Can you please help me that if the above steps make sense or i am just thinking in teh wrong direction.

I srayed the garden with Roundup almost 3 months ago and again 10 days ago. I've now began digging it up but there's lots and lots of weeds throughout the muck and even roots of rushes. The soil it self doesn't look to bad to me. I'm just curious will rotivating the "dugup" garden be the next step and then should i try and rake out the weeds and stones from what remains. Should i give the "dugup" soild another spray of roundup ??

I set a large lawn (approx 1/2 acre) two years ago. Although the soil in surrounding fields seems dry, my lawn is constantly wet with poor grass growth and plenty of rushes growing throughout lawn. Will i need to re-seed lawn or can it be rescued?

New garden, have done some drainage work, grass seed planted in October, one area still very wet. Would it help to dry it up when we plant hedging - we are considering cornus (mix of red and yellow stemmed). What other plants or trees would you recommend to dry the place up a bit. I presume when the grass gets a bit more established that will also help. Don't fancy getting diggers etc to do more drainage. Thanks

I set a lawn earlier this year and as it was coming up some large cattle broke in and did some damage. I filled the holeswith topsoil and reseeded but areas are indented. Yesterday same bunch broke in again and ran amok on my front lawn. How should I go about mending such damage? (other than wringing farmers neck!!) when should I do it, it's very wet now?

I have a site beside the house separated by a wallsize is about half an acre. Its currenlty full of scutch grass, and its a littli bumpyI want to utilise it, but it will be a project over the next 5 years or so, maybe put Fruit trees in and maybe some other trees.My question is, what can I do with it now to have it level, and not require too much maintanance (e,g, Lawning) over the next few years. Is there a type of grass I could put down whcih does not require mowing but does not get out of hand

We are just about to ready our lawn and I am passionate about having a masterpiece of a lawn. I am willing to work hard with it so that it looks like a snooker table. I think there is nothing nicer than an impressive lawn eh? I'm sure you'll agree. So, I want the best seed to use whatever the cost. I want to know when to sow and should i spray before sowing and how long do i leave it before sowing after the spray? Its a pretty big area, about a half acre.

I live out in countryside on 1/2 arce site(massive front and back garden) and eventually now want to tackle the garden(a complete beginner). The front and back are uneven, and the grass is really thick and just takes away from the house we live in. What are the options? Kill it with roundup, level, and re-seed which is what I like to do but is it to late now with it been 23rd July.