Monty Don says....

Yesterday whilst Colin was battling with his by-pass valves, I tackled a section of "lawn" which formerly had fence posts along it and was consequently uneven and full of weeds, namely dandelions. The aim  of the exercise was to level the land, add some more topsoil and sow grass seed.

The weeding of the patch took me the best part of the day.

Wheelbarrow full of dandelions - HOW many per square metre??!!!

This may sound tedious in the extreme but it's amazing how the mind works at times like these. "Guess the length of the root which can be pulled out intact" kept me amused for hours. I was going to show the winner but Colin came up with one much better today, so I'll show his instead.

Winner of longest intact root, at over 18"

Weeding complete the area was levelled using, as Monty Don says, a plank. It was then top filled and seeded.

Colin pointed out that Monty Don says if you're going to have a new section of grass which won't match the rest of the lawn, you should make a feature of it. I tried to claim that it was a submarine... but this didn't wash.

So I reminded Colin that Monty Don says the way to test if soil is ready for planting out is to drop your pants and sit on it!! I'll leave you to guess the response!!

We've agreed to have a shapeless piece of new lawn which won't match the rest... but so what? I say!!

....  Though I'm sure I can see a map of the British Isles in there somewhere...