What To Put A Trampoline On?

[leevis]

Hi
I have a trampoline in my garden. Currently it is sitting on the grass which is a bit of a pain because the grass pretty much dies and its really hard to mow etc.
What i need to do is get some sort of a solution to put underneath it. Does anyone have any experience of matting etc. Not sure whether to get some of that hard plastic grid type stuff and put that on compacted topsoil (i am currently in the process of raising the garden level and the trampoline is going to end up in an area which is currently 8" lower than it should be) or maybe level is out using topsoil and get some astroturf type stuff to put down in the general area of the trampoline.
The garden will ultimately be re-turfed but need something other than turf to put in this corner of the garden.
Any ideas?
Lee

 

[earthshaker]

I have successfully 'submerged' 2 trampolines. In the first case due to a sloping lawn.

The trampolines are left at a height of around 2 feet from the surrounding grass - I don't like the mesh surrounds so thought I would reduce the falling distance.....

Dig out 3 trenches to correspond with the 'feet' of the trampoline down to the depth of 'drop' required. You will need to dig out the centre to allow the mat to clear the ground. The lower the trampoline or heavier the load, the more of the centre needs to be excavated. They are quite easy to level up and the trenches can be back filled and even re-turfed. Plant a few shrubs round the base and thats it.

I haven't had any drainage issues or broken knees yet and it looks a lot nicer.

Downsides are that you have ruined a decent bit of lawn but you no longer need to keep moving it and getting annoyed by dents in the lawn...

It is also quite easy to pull it out if you are moving on!

 

[mattylad]

Your neighbours may answer your question with " a lorry heading towards the local tip"

 

[leevis]

I see ya point with sinking in but we have the nets around it and its not too bad really, quite a way up the garden so about 75ft from anyone else.
I have been looking at that rubber matting and stuff which i think might do the trick. Dont really want to go down the bark chipping route because our neighbours have about a billion cats and they cra*/wee everywhere.

Has anyone used that matting before (its the stuff that has holes in it. I was thinking about putting it straight onto dirt (compacted) with a weed membrane between the dirt and the matting.

Does that sound ok?