Is there anything I can do to make the tiny patch of grass in our garden look decent?

[HopeForTheBest]

i mean without reseeding it? I'm looking for a sort of make-over idea. Garden is tiny. We have an area with decking and then ds's playhouse in the middle of a teeny tiny bit of "lawn" which is actually more scratched up muddy grassy bits that ALWAYS looks crap.
There is no proper drainage, hence it's either flooded when it rains, or immediately dries out and goes brown when it's sunny.

I would like it to look ok (don't need a perfect green lawn) and sort of even, rather than all patchy.

Is there anything I could scatter over it or, I don't know, any ideas at all that might make it look better? Sort of the way you might throw a rug down to cover a bad patch on the floorboards, iykwim. Something instant and cheap!

Would really appreciate any ideas! :)

[SavoyCabbage]

Feed it with lawn food like miracle gro.
Stab it all over with a fork (garden not kitchen ) for drainage.

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

Yes, stab it with a garden fork and then brush sand into the holes, as that will improve the drainage. There are various lawn feeds on the market that will encourage better growth.

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

Hmm. Just noticed that you wanted an instant solution. Aerating and feeding won't give immediate results but you should see an improvement fairly quickly. How often do you mow the grass? Mowing encourages stronger growth.

[fanjodisfunction]

Some gardeners might not like this suggestion but its sounds like you get a lot of foot fall on a small area of grass and its mainly for your kids play, so maybe artificial grass might be the way to go.

[ohforfoxsake]

I agree. I'm going to AstroTurf our patch of scrub.

[HopeForTheBest]

It's a tiny, tiny patch of grass. We put in a few stepping stones (between the decking and the playhouse) just so that we weren't constantly stepping on muddy bits.

I mow it once a week now that it's started growing again, but that only seems to help the patches that are actually green and have grass on them.
We have tried reseeding over the years and it just doesn't seem to help at all.

I have considered artificial grass (think I was asking about it on here last year in fact!). I need to look into that again, I think!

[Bestseller]

If it's that small, I'd be inclined to do away with it altogether and either have more plants or put down gravel or bark. Or turn it into a sandpit!

[Winceywoo]

Artificial grass would be fairly inexpensive and definitely give you instant results. My DM has it in her tiny garden and it saves her the worry of mowing the lawn. John Lewis sell it now just like carpet on a roll!

[HopeForTheBest]

I think I'm going to have to look into it again. I keep thinking it would be a faff to do - don't oyu have to remove all the top soil and grass/weeds and then put down something to stop it all coming through again?
On the other hand, if it's really inexpensive, maybe I could just roll some out there and leave it for the summer, take it up again in winter?

Hmmm, need to investigate...
Thanks for the ideas!

[plipplops]

I was v impressed with the John Lewis artificial grass it looks amazing! Having said that we use GreenThumb who come and feed/weed/moss kill our small (3 square metre?) lawn 4 times a year and it looks so much better now and way better than the neighbours who have the same clay crap to deal with.

[HopeForTheBest]

I've now been looking into putting down gravel, as you suggested bestseller and then dotting around a few potted plants for greenery (though there is a large green hedge around it which should stop it looking too non-gardeny). I think it would look good (though almost anything would be better than now), and be quite fast to do, and (I think) not cost an absolute fortune as we could do it all ourselves.

Plan is to go and check out necessary materials at the DIY shop tomorrow.
I'll post before and after photos if we actually go ahead and do it! :)