I did the first half of this job before my holiday – preliminary weeding, levelling, pruning, digging and discovering a few challenges along the way. The central border has some old crazy paving about four inches down, and the left hand lawn contained about 2m2 of solid builder’s sand and ballast that previous extension builders had dumped.

Anyway on day two I tackled the sand with a mattock, carried on weeding and levelling and made a fine topsoil tilth. The border slabs will be dealt with at a later date.

I laid and cut turf strips, ensuring they were butted up tightly, and watered and tamped down. Hopefully my clients will water and nurture and I will return in November to sort out the borders soil and planting.