Your gardening questions answered: Creating a garden from scratch gives you a great opportunity
For best results, lawn seed is typically sowed in either spring or autumn, when the soil is moist and warm enough to support good growth. Photograph: iStock
Q: We’ve just moved into our home, a new build in the countryside, and don’t have much of a budget to create a garden. We’d like to start by sowing a traditional lawn around the house, which is just a big expanse of bare soil and weeds. Any tips would be great.Starting from scratch is a great opportunity to create the garden of your dreams, and the good news is that there are lots of ways to do this affordably.
Traditionally the ground would be sprayed off first using a contact weedkiller, but putting aside the environmental harm it would cause, there’s no real need. First, hoe away any weeds, doing your best to dig out the tap roots of stubborn perennial species. Remove any large stones or plant debris and then leave it to settle for a week before raking over a little more soil wherever any hollows remain. The finished soil texture should be like breadcrumbs, which is ideal for good germination.
For best results, lawn seed is typically sowed in either spring or autumn, when the soil is moist and warm enough to support good growth. To spread it evenly, sprinkle it in two crosses, at right angles to each other. Then lightly rake in the seed and gently tread the ground to ensure it makes good contact. Keep it watered for a couple of weeks, at which point you’ll start to see germination.
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