Help - I've killed my lawn

[1forsorrow]

So I've got to my late 60s with no experience of gardening. Usually pay someone to cut the lawn and the borders are bushes.

Gardener disappeared before the first cut this year, so just before lockdown I bought myself a lawnmower and strimmer. Cut the grass a few times but realised the lawn was full of moss, I think I cut the grass too low and the moss got worse. I bought a tub of stuff to kill weeds, feed the grass and kill the moss. So the weeds died, the grass looked a bit better and the moss turned black. I tried raking it out so now about 25% of the lawn is bare as once the moss had gone there was nothing left, there is about another 10% when I haven't raked it so hard as there is grass and I was pulling the grass out so now it is a mixture of weak looking grass and some dead moss.

I've have created a disaster area.

A week ago I bought grass seed, raked over the bare bits and put down compost and grass seed but nothing much is happening.

My husband thinks I'm mad, my lawn has gone from a bit scruffy to a total disaster, DH says even if the seed takes the lawn is going to look awful as the grass will look different.

Help me please, what do I do now?

1. Don’t panic.
2. Why was the moss there? Is the grass very shaded?

1. Ignore your husband unless he is Monty Don (Monty would be more supportive)

He knows about as much about gardening as I do. Do you think Monty might save me?

1. I'll try.
2. There is a very shady corner where it was very bad and I assume it had spread out from there. It was already spreading but I think because I cut the grass so short it has helped it spread more (well I read on line that cutting it too short is a problem.) The grass seed I bought is for a shady area so I'm hoping that will be a help.

Do you think I should leave it for a couple of weeks and see what happens? The sad thing is I was quite enjoying it, maybe I got a bit too enthusiastic.

Oh I've gone over it with a fork to aerate it.

It might be worth getting green thumb out, they are still working in lockdown as easy to social distance.

Or get a solution if lawn feed and seed, I used to get it in a big tub mixed together not separate from the garden centre, sprinkle it over and then most importantly in this weather you need to be watering it in several time ps a day.

Be patient, we've got bare patches where a mole visited and grass seed works but it takes time and lots of water!

Did you cover the seed with netting to stop the birds eating it?

Have you had any rain lately? Our front lawn sounds like yours. DH attacks the moss, whereas I was quite happy to have moss because at the least the lawn was green rather than bare!

You will have to wait because the weather is getting hotter. It will come back as soon as it rains. Try not to use the hosepipe or sprinkler because they were saying on the radio that we have to let our lawns go brown at the moment.

It's a shame to use weed killer because the wildlife is affected by it.

You need to water the new grass seed a lot.

Oh and the new grass will just blend in with the old grass.

Grass seed can take weeks (up to 4 I think) to germinate. Can you still see the seed on the ground? Just give them lots of water and hopefully should start to see some growth soon.
We’ve just done the same thing here to a large mossy patch in our garden and it took about 2 weeks before we saw any new grass.

SE water has said don't bother watering for the moment, I don't know where you live of course. But it CAN wait. It's not a big deal.

Thank you all.

I'll try and cover everything.

I'd be ashamed to have green thumb out at the moment, I hope it might improve.

My husband also preferred the moss!

I am watering it, morning and night.

I think the wildlife will be okay, the borders are a wonderland for them in and under the bushes. I've seen lots of bees and butterflies.

That's a relief about the grass blending in.

I can still see the seed. I did one totally bare patch, it didn't have weeds or moss just a corner that people use as a bit of a short cut to the drive and it was totally bare and it now has a nice covering coming up but the rest not so much. I think one patch is starting to come through, might have been wishful thinking this morning but I think something is happening.

My husband keeps telling me to relax, going and checking it several times won't make it grown. I know that's true but with lockdown I think I've got too much time on my hands.

I feel a bit more hopeful now.

You will see a slight green haze as the grass seed grows. The grass will look different at first but it will just blend in eventually.

Hi, the process I followed was:

Scarified the lawn to remove moss
Aerated the lawn with a fork

Scattered grass seeds
Covered with a fine layer of compost
Regular i.e. daily watering
Weekly feed with an organic feed

No weedkiller - I don't use anything like that anymore as it harms insects etc.

Lawn is looking much better

Hey @1forsorrow I had this on my lawn when I moved in and I learnt a lot about how to care for it. We borrowed a scarifier from my parents and scarified twice in autumn last year. Then we used miracle grow a number of times and kept cutting frequently. The scarifier pulls up the moss and weeds and allows the air to get to the remaining grass for it to grow back healthily. You just need to time when you do it.

I did try moss killer before scarifying and the grass just went black!

The term for what you did (raking) is called 'scarifying', and is good to do after you've killed moss. Best done in the spring, but nothing to worry about, really.
A scarified lawn will look AWFUL for at least a month, until the grass grows back, probably longer for you, given the hot weather right now.
It may not be a good idea to try to germinate grass seed with watering, until we get some much needed rain (I'm in the SE), and cooler weather, and it gets a chance to recover. You would need to leave a sprinkler on for 24 hours for the water to penetrate the dry soil underneath at the moment.
Parched lawns recover incredibly quickly once it starts to rain, which is why the advice is not to water during droughts.
I have an ancient electric scarifier which I use every few years, and I know just how awful it looks afterwards! So I really understand your pain!
Hopefully, your lawn will start recovering, and by autumn will be lush and green. You'll probably always have a moss problem, which will need to be dealt with - I have Green Thumb in twice a year to do a spring and autumn weed and feed treatment, which really helps.

The thing that worries me is that in the worst patch there really isn't any grass to speak of, that's why I used the seed. I'm not watering the whole lawn just the quarter where the problem is, I don't want to waste water. Where the moss wasn't so heavy I think the grass is coming back so I think I need to wait till later in the year and use the rest of the grass seed then.

I think I need to buy some wool and make something to take my mind of it. I wonder if you can crochet a lawn?

Thanks for the advice.

You probably have a lot of moss because the ph of the soil is off. Measure it (they have kits for this at the garden center) and it might also be that it lacks fertilisation. Every year in early spring first sprinkle whatever product is necessary to get to the correct ph. At least three weeks after rent an electric scarifier machine. Scarify and sow grass seeds, preferably before there will be at least three days of rain (otherwise water it). Add fertiliser. If the lawn looks really bad or the ph is waaay off then do the same in autumn as well. Do this every year.

Warning: it will look dreadful for a few weeks and you'll think you totally ruined it but it will be ok. I promiss. You're making your lawn healthy again and in the long run that will make a much better difference than just trying to combat symptoms.

Grass seed needs three days of water before it will sprout, so don't be too waste averse.

Maybe I haven't watered enough.

It'll probably sprout in the next week.... just keep watering.

One year DH accidentally used proper weed killer on ours (instead of the weed/feed stuff) and killed the entire lawn I paid a man actually re-turfed the front lawn, but the back recovered in a few months. Grass is tough stuff.

I covered a large patch of bare ground with grass seed for shaded areas last year it was also warm, I raked it in, watered and left it. No further watering, eventually with the rain it started to grow.

For awhile at the end of summer it was a different shade of green, but now a year later it’s a perfect match,

The colour differential is it seems because the new grass isn’t basically as thick, it’s still filling out.

You just need to give it time, a week is far too soon,,,but it will grow.😊

I put some grass seed down in a shady spot recently and it took double the time the box said to start to come through. Weeks on it’s still not great but it’s getting there!

Use a fine spray if watering or you risk washing the seeds into clumps.
If areas were solid moss then it is possibly too compacted under the moss and you could fork it (push the garden fork in 3 inches or so and wiggle it a bit then move to another spot). But the grass seed will grow. Be patient.