Your Dream Lawn Anywhere in Newcastle. Ready From 1 Day.

One city, lots of different gardens

Newcastle grew outwards in waves, and you can read it in the gardens. The Victorian and Edwardian streets close to the centre have small, walled yards or long, narrow back gardens. The interwar suburbs to the north and west are full of semis with a lawn at the front and a long one behind. Post-war estates brought open-plan front lawns, and the newest developments on the northern edge sit on builders' soil over clay.

Each of these needs a slightly different approach, from how the turf gets into the garden to how much work the ground needs before laying.

Newcastle's ground

Much of Newcastle sits on heavy glacial clay. It holds nutrients well, but it drains slowly and compacts easily, which is why so many city lawns get soggy in winter and moss up. In older gardens, decades of use have usually packed the soil down; on new builds, construction traffic has done the same in a few months.

So for most Newcastle lawns, the work before laying matters as much as the turf. We lift the old lawn, break up the compacted layer, add topsoil where it's thin and level the ground so water doesn't collect. Builders' rubble, which turns up regularly in gardens near extensions and newer homes, is priced separately.

Shade from walls and trees

Terraces in Heaton and Jesmond and mature trees in Gosforth and Fenham cast a lot of shade. For lawns that get only a few hours of sun, good drainage, a slightly higher cut and lifting overhanging branches help the grass along. See turf laying for shady gardens.