The lawn is a disaster area! Have we done the right thing.

[JamesDelaneysHat]

We have a small lawn in our shady (NW facing) clay-soiled garden. The lawn has always been pretty rubbish (very mossy, and weedy) but we decided to try and sort it out ourselves. So we put some of that weed and feed stuff down. Put lots of air holes in with a fork and scarified the hell out of it. It's looking very sorry for itself and bare. There's actually hardly any grass left! We've also put shady grass seeds down about a week ago. Will any of this work? I think dh will be heartbroken if not, this is the most effort he's ever put into the garden .

How is it used? Children, dog? I did what you did, then gave up after a couple of years and put down a patio with deep borders instead. I think lawns don't do well in new builds because the earth is compacted under the turf.

Is yours a new build?

Hi pickle. No the lawn has been there for years, since it was built as far as I know (1930's house). It's such a tiny lawn it's not 'used' for anything as such, I just walk on it to hang out washing and we have a frame for a hammock which will sit on it. It has borders at the side of it.

I would be tempted to do what you did but I think dh will be against that as an idea. I have a wistful (and probably really expensive) idea of a lovely shady, paved Japanese style garden with raised borders etc.

We put in two adjoining circles, so we have deep curvy borders all around. Much better use of a small space than a lawn, and I no longer have a lawn mower! Result!

See how you get on after all the work. Ours just never picked up.

Oh James I feel your pain .I think of anything in the garden lawns can be the hardest .And least rewarding of effort .

I should think that if you waited for whatever time it said on the weed and feed box before you sowed seed that things will pick up .

It's been very dry in my area ( SE ) and grass does like a lot of watering .

You're not alone ...www.mumsnet.com/Talk/gardening/2917230-Help-with-a-lawn

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/gardening/2912346-how-to-have-a-nice-lawn

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/gardening/2905756-What-can-I-do-with-this-manky-bit-of-lawn-Photo

We just had all our lawn taken up after extensive work in our garden. It is just grass seed and a week later is still brown, no seeds germinated. Apparently the last week its been too cold for seeds to germinate, so will take even longer than the 2 weeks i had planned on to start growing back visibly. I have mentally given it a year to get back to being a proper lawn, even though the gardener said 6 weeks (massively over optimistic!!) Hang on in the!

My dh went to war on the moss last year - he scarified the living daylights out of it and for a while it looked like he had gone too far and all we would have was mud and scruff. It took a good month or two for it to get back to a good standard but it was worth it. (Hes outside now having a bank hol preen, stalking around checking no dandilions have dared take root)

My dh went to war on the moss last year - he scarified the living daylights out of it and for a while it looked like he had gone too far and all we would have was mud and scruff. It took a good month or two for it to get back to a good standard but it was worth it. (Hes outside now having a bank hol preen, stalking around checking no dandilions have dared take root)

I can't believe I registered just to reply to this thread!

I'm an RHS qualified gardener and lawn care specialist. My opinion is this;

If lack of light and overall damp conditions knackered your lawn it will probably happen again unless you change the environmental conditions. The good news is that you seem to have started the right way. The lawn will look shocking for a while but should quickly recover. Think Aug-time for a nice looking lawn. My advice will do next to nothing about levelling an uneven surface but that's a whole other discussion.

A general plan of attack would be....

1. Mow your grass as short as you can
2. Scarify and collect the arisings
3. Solid tine

Both 2&3 aerate the soil. Wait about 3 days then;

1. Spread lawn sand to kill the moss
2. if you get no rain for 3-5 days after you must water in the lawn sand

The moss will die and go black over a period of 2-3 weeks.

1. Rake out the dead moss and collect arisings
2. Spread an appropriate fertilizer
3. When grass is in active growth repair the patches.

8a. Use a rake to scratch up the surface so the soil is loose and crumbly. 8b. Spread grass seed 8c. Water regularly until grass has germinated

If the weed and feed you put down included lawn sand then you are at point 4. If it didn't you are at point 3. If you have fallen over it is on point 8a. Grass cannot germinate effectively just lying on the ground.

Feel free to ask questions!

Steve

Torches

Grass WILL germinate at the moment (10 deg C ave temps) but assuming a top dressing has been used and the seed has something to root INTO it is lack of water that is your problem.

If you have a sprinkler keep the soil moist until germination - and don't saturate it, you will only wash the seed away.

Steve

I've just tried resowing a big patch of grass - my bank holiday project.

On bare earth though.

I have also put down netting to stop birds eating the seed, and will be watering every day if there's no rain.

Well ,I'm very glad you've joined us Steve . I find my grass really hard work ( surrounded by lots of trees and on a compacted surface ,clay with loads of rubble which aerating doesn't touch ) .

Is lawn sand better than lawn/top dressing ?

Hi. I have a proper name now.

Bare earth is a problem. If you can scratch the surface and get some grooves in it or break the surface up the grass has a much better chance.

Steve

If you have a green thumb franchise locally then I can recommend them. They can advise and treatments aren't expensive for small lawns - you only have 4 a year if the lawn is bad and it's about £15 a time. Now ours is pretty good we only do a weed and feed twice a year but initially you may need scarification.

I've taken to reseeding small patches ,preparing the soil as best I can .Have found shady grass seed good in the shady areas .

I've been using coir compost ( not the compacted brick stuff ) with the seed and I think this has helped . It seemed to be a main component in the patch majic,repair stuff that you can buy . Do you think it's ok ?

( Please don't advise digging my entire grassed area up and starting from scratch ,as I can't .I just settle for pleasant green stuff as opposed to a lawn )

Steve, I dug it over first, dug out the weeds, and raked and raked.

I looked it up on the internet & they said that's what to do.

Another question. We have another lawn which is in bad condition. We do not have a scarifying machine and I started to do it manually but lost the will to live. So gave up.

I have bought some organic lawn fertiliser (don't like using chemicals if it can be avoided). Will it still be effective if we don't bother with the scarifying?

DH has also bought a fancy spreading machine & I would like to turf him out of bed where he is nursing a hangover to use it as this weekend is the first rain we've had for months.

Sunny

Lawn sand only kills moss. Top dressing with a good loam every once in a while will help but isn't essential. For your lawn the best plan is something like...

mow more often but with the grass box off. This is mulch mowing and helps retain moisture and allows nutrients to return to the soil.

In Spring a fertilizer heavy in nitrogen and in autumn a fertilizer heavy in phospate.

In Autumn DO NOT allow leaves to lay on the lawn for too long

In late Autumn lawn renovation to include scarification and solid tining.

That's a good program to start with and can be adjusted once you see the results.

Steve

Grumpy

You have done enough with your patching. Water the areas and watch out for bloody rabbits once you have germination!

On your Q2 - the fertilizer will always make the grass grow. All other measures are attempting to make it a dense lawn with good coverage. To achieve that you need a good balance.

Best way to look at it is this. Grass is a plant. It needs the same things as other plants and in the right balance. Water, light, heat and nutrients. If one or more of those are in short supply or absent you have a cultural problem.

Finally, we are only in May - there is plenty of time for the fancy spreader so let the poor guy suffer a little longer with his beer flu!

Steve

Sunny

Coir, peat compost, loam. Anything is better than nothing but with the lighter materials they have a tendency to dry up and blow away. Keep them damp and you should be ok. At 10deg C germination should occur in 7-10 days.

Steve

M0ther

I've rescued a few lawns tended by these companies! The usual problem is that they are good at sprinting round your garden with a spreader (good margin on chemicals!) but poor on walking slowly behind a tiner, verticutter or scarifier.

S.

Oh dear. We might have fallen down on the breaking up of the surface before putting seeds down. It is like bloody concrete because it's clay. We put a thin layer of compost over the top though. Thanks for all the advice though Steve!

Thanks Spartacus that's really helpful .