Oh god, my new lawn (pic attached)

[alwaysfancywine]

Gutted to have mowed my newly laid (and v expensive) lawn and it's now looking like this. I've clearly left it too long. Please gardening people, tell me is it completely f**ked or can I do anything to salvage it?

Lots of water and feed. Had you been watering it?

agreed, looks v dry. Where are you - most of us have had plenty of rain over the past few weeks?

Oh my word, why did you carry on mowing? How often have you been watering?

if you water it and make sure its kept damp for the time being it will probably be ok.

You need a company called Green Thumb and loads of water by the looks of it.

we had a new lawn in the heat of summer ,we were told to soak it early morning and evening.
mow it after 2 weeks.
did you follow all instructions?
id contact whoever laid it for advice .

Looks like you've mowed too short but there still seems to be some green there so it will probably recover with lots of tlc (not letting it dry out and mowing gently and regularly).
IME the hardest bit of establishing a new lawn isn't getting the grass to grow, it's the levelling and getting rid of weeds. So though it looks awful at the moment, it is probably nearly there and in a worst case scenario you could throw some grass seed on top and help it out a bit.

Soak and feed.

I want to live where you are to have grass that dry

water and food, every single day, making a few holes with a fork (with the prongs) to help water penetration and air. Might work?

Agree, water, water, water, maybe get a load of grass seed to sprinkle too.

Gosh, where are you? My lawn is like a puddle at the moment.

It's hard to tell if it's because you've cut it too short or whether it's just very, very dry. Or both! New grass should only be cut on a long setting for the first few cuts as the roots aren't long enough to take hold and it will get pulled out (learnt from experience)!

I would get some grass seed and sprinkle it all over and water tons. Literally everyday.

I second GreenThumb. They are a franchise. We moved to a house which had a weed patch pretending to be a lawn. In just one treatment there has been a 70 percent improvement.

Thanks everyone! Plan of action - I'll water everyday, make holes and sprinkle some grass seed. Any particular brand? And also, what kind of food? (I know nothing about gardening. As you can see!).

I would call green selves as you will find the costs prob works out cheaper than you buying stuff from the likes of homebase

We made that mistake tried to do it ourselfs and it didn't work , eventually called Greensleeves and they sorted it for less than we had wasted doing it ourselfs

They now come to do our garden 4 times a year and it costs us £50 a time

This is them

www.greensleeves-uk.com

Looks like greenthumb is the same as Greensleeves

If both in your area prob worth getting quite from both and see who is cheaper

Looks like they do exactly the same job.

Where has it been wet? It's been mostly dry for weeks with the odd shower in Yorkshire. My grass is hardly growing at all which is fabulous because I don't have to cut it.

Interested in Green thumb though - how much does it cost?

Oh, just seen someone put a price on - maybe I'll check them out but I don't want to committ to a regular lawn treatment TBH - It would be nice for it to look a bit better, but I'm not that fussed and don't want to encourage anything that'll make it need cutting more often.

Don't get greenthumb in please. They will drench it in nitrogen rich fertilizer thus greening it up but making the root system weaker.. I think your lawn might infected with the fungus red thread.
Either that or you have cut it too short. Never mow more than 40 % off the length of the grass.

Don't go mad with feeding it - if you do it yourself, check the instructions on the packet and don't put on more than it tells you. Lack of food is unlikely to be the problem, after all.

Were there any dead looking patches on it before you mowed it?

it was very long and looked green. it was just after we mowed it that it started to look so brown.

If you over feed it and there is lush new growth, this will get scorched in the heat. I'd leave it alone for a bit, just water it well if it doesn't rain for a few days.

I'd wait until the autumn to feed it. Autumn lawn feed strengthens the roots. A big sack will cost about £30 from a garden centre and they will probably be able to loan you a spreader for free.