To call on all that are green fingered?

[DaisyChaining]

This is my lawn 🙈 it's fucking horrific. My whole garden was a state, but I've bought some nice furniture and hanging baskets and things. But what can I do to sort out my grass? I don't have the money for a gardener. I've sprinkled some seeds over the bare patches. Hopefully they'll grow. But what do I do about the state of the rest of it all?

AIBU to ask for your best lawn tips?

Yes, shameless AIBU for traffic. Wouldn't you if your garden was this shit?

Do you have a dog? Is that what is causing the dead patches?

It needs a good feed and some water, and yes seed on the bare patches will help. How often do you know?

Mow. For fucks sake.

No, I just think the dead patches are where it was overgrown and I've strimmed it. There are a lot of cats around here, and foxes, does their wee do that? I've dealt with a lot of their poo whilst sorting it out.

I've never mowed. I don't have a lawnmower. My mum bought me a strimmer. I'm desperately trying to find a job, and when I do I'm going to ask the gardener who does the lady next door to mow mine too every couple of weeks.

I'll water. Any recommendations for feed? If it makes me sound any better, I'm very young and this is my first house, and I'm relatively poor. Though maybe I should have prioritised the lawn over the pretty furniture 🤔

Our lawn was like that when we moved in. 4 boys had been riding their bikes all over it. DH used a garden fork to loosen the top 2-3 inches of soil, then sprinkled on grass seed mixed with potting compost, firmed it down by treading on it and watered it in then watered it for a few weeks till the grass grew. If you don't have garden tools, ask if anyone has old ones they don't use, or try freecycle

Weed it, stab a garden fork over it, water it, go to B and M for lawn patch and feed and water again. Strimming it will ruin it. Stick sticks in it whilst it recovers, this will keep off animals. Or...... save up and replace it with pretend grass, also from B and M. No mowing, no feeding, no watering just roll it out.

How much do you think it would be for fake grass? I'd say it's about 7ft by 10ft max. And can I just do it myself? Or would I need a gardener to fit it? If it's too expensive, I'll go with the previous PPs advice. I'll get my student loan in September, but want it to look ok for the summer really. Thanks everyone, really appreciate it.

Btw, these are my new furniture and solar tree things. So I am trying, with 1/4 of the garden at least

Could you be more rude alternative?

I'd do as PP suggested but turf isn't all that expensive either and not too hard to do yourself with some googling

It's going to take a lot of work to get that back to something presentable, then another reasonable amount of work every week for about 7 months of the year to maintain it. Not to mention what you might spend on grass seed, tools, a sprinkler etc. So now is the time to decide if that's really how you want to spend your time and money?
It looks quite small (assuming the gravel/stepping-stone path on the left is the edge of it) so re-laying it with fake grass or gravel could be a more realistic option for you. Yes you'll have to wait and save up to do it, but it might be a better fit for you in the long run.
Good luck in your first house though whatever you decide!!

Oh dear Khajiit13, alternative was only swearing at the autocorrect in their post above the rude one!

Start again by digging up and laying topsoil and turf but then kids off of it for ages - or else go for astroturf. May still have to keep kids off (no experience). Grass seed will not work on the grass pictured. I have similar under a swing and have tried...

and do not put sticks in the ground as pp suggested if any possibility your kids could fall on them - so not eye height!! I am paranoid about my tomato supports so got curved ones in the end!

Second the covering with top soil and compost and 're seeding but I always thought you had to do that in spring or autumn (I could be wrong) it's very easy to do though but you have to water it every day until it's sprouting and established. Or at least that's what we did. It's taken well now but took a year to get there.

Turf will probably be the quickest way to make it look more lawn like but doesn't always take and can be expensive.

I would get a professional lawn care company to come out and assess it thy will then charge you about £80 every 6 months for two weed and feeds (they can use stronger weed killers/lawn treatments) , that along with your regular mowing will soon sort it out, and after one year you should be able to diy it. Please don't put fake grass down, the world needs plants not plastic. In the autumn scarify with a rake and aerate.this website has lots of advice www.lawnsmith.co.uk/topic/repair-renovation

Love your new furniture!

My local public school reseeds their grass all year round.

By the look of it, I think your lawn is a goner, op.

Before you sink any money into it, think about whether you actually want any lawn. If you do, I'd suggest waiting until the end of summer, digging the whole thing over, raking it to a level and then throwing some lawn fertiliser down and laying some new turf next spring.

It's not a big area. Turf shouldn't be that expensive and it isn't hard to lay yourself.

The problem with doing anything to try and save the lawn you have is that it can get expensive pretty quickly. Where we are, fake lawn is also more expensive than turf.

You need to sprinkle some compost over the seed and keep watering it to keep it moist. Every few days or more if it's hot.
Water the whole thing a bit. It might just be looking sad because it was a bit long. I reckon some water and it'll be much better in ten days.

As Puffpaw said, it needs a good rake to get up the matted dead grass so that air & rain can get to the roots properly. Really scratch the surface with the rake to slightly loosen the top layer. If you have a garden fork make lots of small holes with it to aerate the lawn. A complete weed & feed treatment will help; make sure it gets watered in thoroughly. Be prepared for it to look a little worse before it gets better, but you're doing a great job so far!

Give it a cut it regularly , rake out the dead and cut bits and remove them , water it regularly ,toss some grass seed on the bare patches ( try not to walk over the seed. ) regular cut and water should soon green it up and you could pull out weeds by hand on a patch that small
alternatively turf is about £3.20 per turf and it's usually 1 meter squared per roll ( but not square !) , you can often pick up little electric mowers second hand for about £20 but if it's only a small patch next doors gardener might mow it for you for a £5 or so
Hope this helps
Ps your furniture etc looks great

Ah brilliant, thanks so much for all your tips. I'll try them all and see how it goes, if not I'll look into turf/ fake grass. Thanks again, MN is so so helpful.

I'm going to change my advice slightly, my ballpark figures for a professional lawn service were for a much larger lawn (mine!), it would probably be a lot less for you, and kingjoff is quite right on a patch that small you can hand weed it.

Betty explains scarifying really well and all you need is a cheap lawn rake.
The garden furniture looks great! When you are feeling a bit more flush I'd recommend getting a couple of cheap pots and doing bulb lasagnes e.g.www.rhsplants.co.uk/plants/_/bulbs/bulb-collections/bulbs-for-pots--spring-favourites/itemno.BU30001897/ in them, they are very low maintenance and really lovely to see come up every year. Gardening gets addictive, watch out!

Clicky link
www.rhsplants.co.uk/plants/_/bulbs/bulb-collections/bulbs-for-pots--spring-favourites/itemno.BU30001897/

My "lawn" was Ina truly truly terrible state last year. I cut it back to flat, then used some weed killer and grass feed mix that didn't kill the grass. Repeats every so often. Could you keep an eye out on freecycle for a lawn mower?

Also Aldi currently have bedding plants at £1.69 for six, great for putting in pots for colour on your patio area .