Laying a new lawn

[Andeecee]

Was planning on laying a new lawn in my garden in the Spring.

Would it be possible to lay the new turf on top of the existing turf?

I wondered if the new turf would 'knit' with the existing grass or would it be best to dig up the old one?

Thanks for your advise.

[sddsddean]

You probably could, but I wouldn't advise it. If you are going to all the trouble of buying new turf, you would be better to get rid of the old. If this looks like a back breaking exercise, you can hire petrol turf cutters from your local DIY place. You can either chuck the old turf, or stack it upside down to compost. There are loads of sites telling you how do lay it, but remember that laying the new stuff is the easy bit. The work is in the preparation. My garden has a 100 sq m lawn and it took about 3 weekends to get the prep done right (though we were starting from scratch). Don't buy your turf from the local garden centre. Go to someone like Rolawn who will deliver it to you fresh on a Friday (assuming you are laying it over the weekend) and lay it is as soon as possible. For the next fortnight, water it at least once a day. If in doubt, water it some more! Good luck.

[andyjevs]

yes you can with no problems. Mow the old lawn really short then rough up the surface with a fine rake and even out any uneven areas.
Lay the new lawn straight on top of the old and the old grass will die off and provide nutrients for the new lawn.

Good luck

[andyjevs]

Yes you can kill an old lawn by laying a new one on top of it....believe me. The lack of light....one of the 3 things essential to plant life....will kill the old grass and it will rot down. I would be prepared to put my mortgage on that one.

As for buying the most expensive lawn you can....utter piffall....it really depends on what you want your lawn for. If you will have a lot of "traffic" over the lawn, a cheap, hard wearing turf is best.

[gucciman]

andy is right, you can indeed lay a new lawn over an exisiting one.

but its also true that the new lawn will inherit any problems that your old one may have had. i.e. if you had moss in the lawn because of poor drainage or overhanging shade then your new lawn will soon do to. if you do have problems then you need to remedy these first, i.e. install drainage etc.

and any new lawn, no-matter how expensive the turf was will only stay looking good with regular maintainence and hard work.

[Andeecee]

The present lawn is patchy. There is no disease as far as I am aware although there is a little bit of moss.

I think I'll give it a try.

Thanks for your advice.