Turfing

[don logan]

Hi, i know this isn't about growing veg, but i need some advice on turfing my lawn.

I recently bought a house which had an extremely overgrown garden. I have cleared most of the weeds and dug out the bushes and have found that the garden was at one point covered in a thin layer of light gravel. The problem is, the gravel is still there and so is the old plastic sheeting which has failed over time and has all kinds of roots and weeds growing through it, making it impossible to remove.

I need to get the garden back to its soil in order to turf it, but won't be able to remove the gravel or the sheeting. So, i was thinking of hiring a rotavator and just churning the whole lot up, picking out as much shredded plastic as possible and then getting top top soil and turfing the lot.

How does this sound? And after rotavating in preparation for turfing, is it best to get the turf down straight away, or can i wait a week as i can only get to the house on weeekends? And can anyone recommend a rotavator to hire? I don't know if i'll need a basic one or something more powerful....

Thanks.

[Peapod]

Is there any way to move the gravel in order to get to the plastic? Even with a shovel of some sort? Picking out the plastic seems like a lot of work.

[Hammer]

If you are going to rotovate the area i would suggest leaving it for a few weeks afterwards for all the seeds etc that you bring to the surface to sprout and then spray it all with a weed killer and then turf it.
I got a lawn laid a few years back and all the seeds(weeds) in the soil came up with the grass, not such an issue if you are turfing but spraying it off would stop weeds coming up through the turf.
Maybe this is not neccessary when turfing but i suppose it depends how thick the turf is.
Others can no doubt advise - just a thought.