If you’re in the U.K. how is your lawn looking after last year’s drought?

[CurlyhairedAssassin]

We had dead looking patches all over ours last year where the sun gets it all day and loads of people said “it’ll come back”, but it hasn’t. So still bare patches on one side, and dead patches now in the shady bits where DH has done weed and feed and scarified and since then there has been no rain so it looks AWFUL at the moment!

Doesn’t help that we neglected it a bit the last couple of years.

Lush.

Exactly the same as yours. I've chucked some grass seed about and watered it the last few days and I've got my fingers crossed.

Scarify, reseed and put a sprinkler on it in the evening if no rain is due? I'm in the SE and it's forecasting rain on Wed/Thurs/Fri next week.

When did your DH apply the weed and feed? Has it had a chance to work? I applied mine about 2 weeks ago and the grass has gone mad!

You may need a special shade-tolerant grass seed for the shady areas depending on how much sun the area receives. It's normally a rye-based seed rather than the lush premium grass that thrives in sun.

Regular mowing will encourage the grass to spread and fill gaps although it takes a few weeks/months to take effect. Mow using a medium blade height then lower the blades for a closer cut.

Our north-facing garden was brilliant last summer. Little patchy in parts and still is, but overall held up very well.

Our south-facing garden is essentially non-existent. Despite our best efforts to scarify, weed and feed, it’s now mostly weeds. We couldn’t keep up with them. I’m not sure what to do anymore as there is no way we can dig them all up and there’s very little grass left.

It's full of violets at the moment. It's putting me off mowing it.

It's looking really good at the moment.

To be honest, the scarifying doesn't help in the immediate short term. I'd over seed it now and keep it watered. In a few weeks it will be fine.

Absolute fine after last summer. The only bald patches are where one of the cats has weed.

Monty advised re bald patches the week before last on Gardeners' World iirc.

Yay, it’s raining! Hoping it will do the lawn some good.

DH scarified after the weed and feed so it’s looking shocking at the moment especially with the lack of rain the past couple of weeks but the ground is very dry and compacted so I want to wait till the soil is a bit moist and then try and loosen it/aerate it a bit before trying to reseed.

I think we should have prepared it for winter a bit better.

If you try and get into the habit of tending it in the spring and autumn and mowing in between you should be okay going forward.

Maybe I've been lucky but I literally apply feed, weed and mosskiller once in spring and once in autumn (preferably before a heavy shower) and rake/scarify and seed any bald bits as required. Takes very little time and keeps it ticking over all year

I try to never let it grow too long between mowings as I cba dealing with all the clippings it produces nor the extra time it takes (lazy)