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Bernie66

Joined: 14 Jan 2005
Posts: 13967
Location: Eastoft

Posted: Thu Mar 30, 06 11:43 am Post subject:
Compared with seed its still expensive, especially if you include your time at £25.00 an hour say! It must depend on the supplier and their ethics surely.

Behemoth

Joined: 01 Dec 2004
Posts: 19023
Location: Leeds

Posted: Thu Mar 30, 06 11:54 am Post subject:
If you do a tip I've heard is to dig some fertiliser in to the sub soil as this encourages the roots to go down quicker.

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Thu Mar 30, 06 12:29 pm Post subject:
I'd go for seed and then add wild flowers to the margins. You can mow an area for play and leave the rest. Actually mowing must be very un-ethical, what about a few sheep?

gil
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 08 Jun 2005
Posts: 18409

Posted: Thu Mar 30, 06 12:35 pm Post subject:

I used to know a guy who sold and installed roll-on lawns in the Home Counties for 'loadsamoney'. Suspect most of the profit margin is in the labour etc. rather than the turf itself, so a DIY job would be much cheaper (hence JB's figure of £1.50/sq.m). However, I don't think the lawn is grown in a particularly environmentally-friendly manner - as fast as possible, I should think, using all kinds of fertilisers - and I wonder where they get all the topsoil from ?

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Thu Mar 30, 06 12:41 pm Post subject:
I'd go for seed with plenty of clover and some other interesting things in it. Get some nitrogen fixers in there, you don't want to ever be fertilising it. Although if it gets some grass space for the kids to play out on quickly, I see the attraction of turfing it.

Bernie66

Joined: 14 Jan 2005
Posts: 13967
Location: Eastoft

Posted: Thu Mar 30, 06 12:43 pm Post subject:
Organically grown turf?.....

Jonnyboy

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 23956
Location: under some rain.

Posted: Thu Mar 30, 06 1:01 pm Post subject:

cab wrote:

I'd go for seed with plenty of clover and some other interesting things in it. Get some nitrogen fixers in there, you don't want to ever be fertilising it.

Although if it gets some grass space for the kids to play out on quickly, I see the attraction of turfing it.

Well that's it, this is a small area to get the kids outside in the fresh air pronto, 10m x 8m max.

As per my other post on topsoil, I've got 100tons coming that will be seeded naturally or used as the kitchen garden.

Love clover in grass, but it grows so much faster than the stuff! A clover lawn somewhere would be nice.

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Thu Mar 30, 06 1:07 pm Post subject:

Jonnyboy wrote:

Love clover in grass, but it grows so much faster than the stuff! A clover lawn somewhere would be nice.

You can always seed clover in later. We did that in our (tiny) lawn, and the whole thing looks better for it.

Bernie66

Joined: 14 Jan 2005
Posts: 13967
Location: Eastoft

Posted: Thu Mar 30, 06 1:11 pm Post subject:

Bernie66 wrote:

Organically grown turf?.....

Can't find any on google!

Jonnyboy

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 23956
Location: under some rain.

Posted: Thu Mar 30, 06 1:34 pm Post subject:

Bernie66 wrote:

Organically grown turf?.....

Can't find any on google!

I guess that if I look after it organically that's Ok, right?

I mean, it's like giving a battery chicken a good home.

Bernie66

Joined: 14 Jan 2005
Posts: 13967
Location: Eastoft

Posted: Thu Mar 30, 06 2:56 pm Post subject:

Jonnyboy wrote:

Bernie66 wrote:

Organically grown turf?.....

Can't find any on google!

I guess that if I look after it organically that's Ok, right?

I mean, it's like giving a battery chicken a good home.

Exactly the same only different food I guess

Maybe chicken manure!

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45468
Location: yes

Posted: Thu Mar 30, 06 5:45 pm Post subject:

use the time to enjoy preparing the ground , sow an appropriate mixture of seed for your needs (wear, aspect, micro-climate etc.)
cover it with net curtains (charity shops )to keep birds n beasts off . water wait , wait n mow .
what is under the ground is what is important
an instant lawn is often that , here today, dead or nicked tomorrow
for a kid proof lawn ,ie alien type tough , good prep will be good .
if it is seeded soon from next year (and then on it will stand the pace .this summer it will be ok to use but maybe not as a full time runabout lawn .
next year = indestructable
plenty of sand is good .
tricky blighters lawns , i stick to fruit n veg .

good luck
worms are your friend .moles make ace potting compost in little pot sized heaps .
the japanese use gravel , running in gravel tires the wee ones no end

bark chippings are instant , safe , and hard wearing if compacted
i lived next to a bloke who used scissors on the edges ,my dad was odd about daisies or d'lions . lawns make folk crazy

.
tyre chipping surfaces are also available (recyc )
thing is with lawns if they are wet they are well slippy , for a play area id go with chippings or recyc rubber .playgrounds use these cos they are safest and cost effective over the years .
gardeners grow lawns ,then resent the wear n tear . nice to look at if you like monoculture .
rubber matting or woodchip would be my choice for a play area
sorry to ramble but "lawns"is a big subject .

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Fri Mar 31, 06 9:04 am Post subject:

Our lawn is a valuable source of salad crops. We have dandelion (leaves and flowers in salads), daisy (again its both leaves and flowers), cow parsley (never gets to flower in the lawn of course, but the leaves are handy) and red clover (I let that flower when I can, it struggles being trampled all the time, but the flowers are very tasty). We also get other random things seeding there; last year we had a tomato grow in the edge and two or three tomatillos.

marigold

Joined: 02 Sep 2005
Posts: 12458
Location: West Sussex

Posted: Fri Mar 31, 06 10:11 am Post subject:

Turf lawn can't be used straight away - it needs at least 2-3 weeks for roots to grow into the subsoil, which should be well-prepared (eg. incorporate sharp sand for drainage in heavy soils) and it must be watered COPIOUSLY if the weather is dry. Since most of the work is in the prep and you have to do that for seed or turf, I'd go for seed - the Organic Gardening catalogue have various mixes to choose from. The children will probably enjoy helping to scatter the seed and watching their lawn grow.

10m x 8m = SMALL ??

. Twice the size of my entire garden

Nick

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford

Posted: Fri Mar 31, 06 10:21 am Post subject:

gil wrote:

However, I don't think the lawn is grown in a particularly environmentally-friendly manner - as fast as possible, I should think, using all kinds of fertilisers - and I wonder where they get all the topsoil from ?

A huge amount of the land round here is used for growing turf. They lay a net all across the fields, and sow it, then, harvest much later with very nifty machines.

I have no idea if it's organic, or not (I'd bet a kidney it's not), but I do know that a farmer can get vast sums per acre for turf, as against spuds, their usual crop. However, cos it nicks an inch of soil, or so, it they can only do it a couple of times on each field. There's money to be made renting out a field for a few months to Rollalawn, or whatever they're called. Hundreds of acres used at a time. I assume for housing estates, garden centres, and Tahir-like land barons.

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