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. CB, Co Meath
A: 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. Given that your house is a new-build in the countryside, it’s likely that your builder will have stored topsoil from the excavations to one side for you to use. Some of this can be used to level off any rough ground by spreading it over the surface and then raking it to a nice tilth in preparation for sowing.
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.
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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. When the young grass reaches a height of 7-10cm, give it its first very gentle cut, keeping the blades high.
Bear in mind that different mixes of lawn seed are available, depending on the kind of lawn you want to create. For a resilient, hard-wearing, relatively drought-resistant family lawn, look for a combination that contains a high percentage of dwarf rye grass and creeping red fescue. But for that perfect, albeit high-maintenance sward, you’ll need a mix that contains little or no dwarf rye grass in favour of finer-leaved varieties such as highland browntop bentgrass and chewings fescue. Finally, also consider developing part of your new garden as a natural, native mini-meadow, a great way to support biodiversity and encourage wildlife. For more information on establishing native meadows, see biodiversityireland.ie and pollinators.ie.
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