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?

I think mine took about six weeks, I thought it was dud seed, then all of a sudden one day it started growing.

RaptorInaPorkPieHat I bet he had a horrible moment when he realised what he'd done. Glad it recovered.

Don't start me on grass! i feel your pain!

a few years ago we got turf but we were so busy at the time we completely neglected it, didn't mow it, left kids toys all over it and it got loads of dead patches which then filled with horrible weed grass. Possibly yorkshire blue or something?

Anyway, long story short, I've been trying to pull up the horrible clumping weed grass plus scarifying and it looks way worse. I'd describe it as 'agricultural'. Can't believe we paid so much for turf!!

But back to your quandary, yes, definitely patience is key and keep watering it every day, a good soaking with a sprinkler ideally.

We will get there with our lawns :)

Not just me then, at least we know we have each other Twixes.

I looked out of the bedroom this morning, don't know what I expected to see but I thought it looked a bit like an aerial photo of the Somme (no disrespect to WW1 veterans, my granddads were there.)

Currently the OK bit of the lawn is dry and looking sad
The bit stripped of moss is basically a mud puddle as I keep watering the seeds.
I had some horrible weeds, no idea what they are called but they are flat and I sprayed them with weed killer and they have died and rotted and left craters.
The new bit of grass I did on the bare patch (did this weeks ago before I started ruining the lawn) was doing well but now looks like it is dying - to hot and dry perhaps.

On a more positive note the backgarden is a bit better, I also had the moss problem due to the shade but not quite so bad so majority of lawn is OK. I've left all the grass to grow longer as Iheard that was better with moss and I now have lots of daisies (I love daisies so not worried about them) and some very pretty delicate looking flowers which are almost certainly weeds but I don't care. They are all buzzing with bees and other flying things (I am as clueless with wildlife a I am with gardens.) I have some birds in the hedge. So the backgarden is full of life and lifts my spirits and drumroll - some of my grass seed is sprouting in the back garden, I thought it might be yesterday but today it is definite.

There is hope!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! as long as I stay at the back of the house.

Well nothing is happening with the seeds but the good news is that some of the old grass that was crowded out with the moss is coming through, sparse but from a distance it is green which has cheered me up. It might be a mess but not so obviously a mess to the neighbours.

I haven't given up hope with the seeds but I wish they'd get a move on.

One day you look out and there'll be this bright green haze and the little seeds will have sprouted!

I hope so, at least it isn't looking quite so horrific and I have a little hope. I'm winning the battle with the dandelions which is something

OP, I did what you've done to my lawn, twice

My back garden has always had a lot of moss. I killed the moss, raked it out and it looked horrendous. I planted grass seed and eventually it grew back. Of course the moss came back eventually so I did it again

My back lawn now has loads of moss in, again, and it's going to bloody well stay like it. I'm not going through that a third time for it to come back again

@1forsorrow.. it sounds like you've got the balance right for flowers to be growing among the grass. I hate our lawn as parts look dead. The front area is just bare earth and the ground is unpenetrable. It's a new-build garden and the turf has never taken from the start. So i want rid of the lot and was happy when a patch of white clover seeded and started spreading and now we have scarlet pimpernel too! The tiny delicate red flowers close up at night. DH has been told no way is he to mow them!

One man's weeds is another's flowers!

Ps. the bees love the clover too

I love clover, Booseys we've let the daisies grow through our grass at the front of the house. Even dh is not mowing them. It's our back garden too and is organic, it is really looking good now we've learned to love the weeds! I do pull off the ones that try to take over the roses and flowerbeds though!

Hi everyone, you have been so encouraging. The back garden is definitely looking better with some seeds growing, not perfect but definitely better.

The front lawn, the main problem I now think of as Mordor, isn't great but some of the old grass is definitely making a come back. I'm not going to mow it for a while, with the dry weather it isn't growing much anyway but I feel it needs a bit of tranquility and I don't think the mower is right for it.

I did feel a bit of guilty pleasure as the neighbours, bit snooty don't approve of us as DH is too brown for their liking, have all cut their grass really low, they seem to compete on how can give their lawn the closest shave. Their grass is now all brown/yellow and they have lots of dandelions. My grass is very green, presumably as I am trying to keep the seeds watered plus the lawn feed I put down. With the grass a bit longer you can't see the damaged bit from the road so I actually think mine looks quite good in its own little way, nice and green with lots of daisies.

We have a clumb of primroses in the middle of the back lawn, don't know where they came from but they appeared 2 years ago and have spread. They look so pretty but are starting to die off now so they will get mowed next time and that patch will look a bit of a mess but I think it is worth it.

Yes if the grass is cut too short it can't cope with really dry weather. I suggest that you leave the cuttings too , it gives the lawn the goodness to grow more strongly too

. I do it and have noticed a definite improvement but I do have sandy light soil which needs building up. (my neighbour was saying she hasn't got enough 'soil' I said the same to her she doesn't seem to understand how earth is formed, it comes from the plants (obviously everything else organic that dies, including grass of course which is only an acceptable weed!).

Our soil is clay, don't know if that is good or bad.

@ppeatfruit.. good to hear you are leaving it to nature! But yes, neighbours can get funny about things like this. I just go with the fact that pollinators are in such trouble we need to help them as much as we can by holding off mowing so frequently.

@1forsorrow... it sounds like you're on the right track with it. We have clay and i think it's supposed to be great for minerals but the drawback is in the winter it holds water like a swamp and in summer it dries out and becomes solid and looks dead as the grass dies back. I found out that grass is designed to survive extremes so even though it looks dead it comes back when it rains. Thank goodness we're having some rain at last but don't know how much we'll get.

Former greenkeeper here. Seed needs to be in good contact with soil to germinate and establish. Raise your height of cut to 25mm, cut regularly enough to only remove 25/30% of the leaf area at any one time. Avoid franchised lawn maintenance companies, I've never seen a good one. Don't use weed, feed and mosskiller combination fertilizers. Very prone to scorching. Happy to give further advice or help should anyone need.

@Onesmallstepforaman, thank you for that. Can I just ask you about moss, I have used the weed, feed and mosskiller and it has killed off most of the moss, I've raked out as much as I can but it hasn't all died off. As I don't want to rake anymore, trying to give the grass a chance, I am pulling it out by hand, is that OK or should I just leave it now and see if the grass comes back strong enough to overcome it? If the weed feed and mosskiller is bad is there something else I should use?

24 hrs of rain has done wonders, some of the seed has germinated and some grass that looked very straggly after all my raking is looking much better. I started off last Friday saying 25% of the lawn was wrecked, I'd say now it looks like less than 20% maybe 15% so a big change in under a week.

For some reason the back lawn is doing much better than the front but then it wasn't as bad to start off with.

All help and advice greatly appreciated.

@1forsorrow the moss has probably enjoyed the very wet winter on your clay soil. Since it spreads via spores, it's best not to disturb it whilst it's green. Wait a few weeks until your grass has established. If there is still a lot of moss, treat the lawn with sulphate of iron in a solution in cooler, damp conditions. If you can find one with seaweed extract in ready mixed that would promote root growth in the grass. Apply with a watering can or knapsack sprayer over the whole lawn (try not to get it on paving as it stains). Two weeks after the treatment, scarify lightly to remove the moss. By lightly, I mean the blades of the scarifier should only be working in the canopy; not touching soil at all. Moss will blackened and die after treatment, grass will Darken then go very green.

It can’t be as bad as this monstrosity!
I feed and weeded, not realising that 60% was weed. Now I have bare cracked mud!!!

We are getting artificial fitted next week!

@Onesmallstepforaman, thanks for the advice. I will leave the moss now, there is definitely some of the old grass coming back and some of the seed but not much. The rain yesterday has certainly perked it all up and I'm feeling more hopeful. I've got some gaps in the decent part of the lawn where I have dug out some huge dandelions, I've filled them with compost and then grass seed, does that sound right?

Would I get the sulphate of iron from a garden centre.

Please excuse my ignorance, I've never been interested in gardening but it is getting a bit addictive now.

@calliopemarie well the 25% I wrecked was worse than that but the other 75% was OKish. I wish I could do photos, I have a camera but no idea how I get it to talk to the laptop. Yes I've got to late 60s being useless at gardening and no good at tech.

Beginning to wonder what I am good at. I'm determined to get the lawn looking good, I don't want it looking like a bowling green and I like some of the weeds and they will be staying but I want it to look nice.

I'm wondering about planting something that likes the shade in the worst corner. I think bluebells like shade and I like them so that might cheer it up.

Cyclamen like shade (even dryish shade) too and come up in the autumn, their leaves are pretty during the rest of the year .

Bluebells and Lily of the Valley like damp shade. If your shade is formed by evergreen trees it's not so easy though

Oh and 1forsorrow Snap about the tech and the age !