Improving our lawn

[WellTidy]

We have quite a lot of grass for a suburban garden, but it isn't in the best condition. Very uneven, patchy, weeds, worn areas etc. The children play ball games on it, so it will never be super lush and beautiful, but I would like to do what I can so that it is green at least.

Any ideas for treatments that I can use now, or is it too late/early in the year please?

We are in the south east and it is very dry here (save for today, when we have thunderstorms). I don't really want to get in the business of watering it as it would takes ages even with a sprinkler and I don't want to 'waste' water.

I’m not sure about treating it, but for us, over seeding has worked well for us. You could feed it first If you want to go for glory, but not necessary,

If you’re not sure how to over seed just google.

Excellent, thank you. I’d never heard of over seeding, I have only just found out about scarifying! I wonder whether I could do half of it and then the other half. It’s not that our garden is enormous, it’s more that I know my limitations and the amount of time that the whole process takes. It’s a job for the autumn then, not one for now.

We got green thumb in, feed and scarification package & the lawns really nice now.

Get a lawn company in. Nothing you do will be as good and all the work will be back breaking.

Your lawn will thank you spent 8 bitter years attempting to make my lawn look good before professionals did it in one season

Well they say to do it late in the year or early. Personally I find as long as there is some rain forecast, the seed germinates and fills in.

Honestly I’d buy a couple of big bags of grass seed from amazon, make holes with a rake, rake it in, and do it when we have a wet week forecast within a month the seed will have grown and filled in your lawn.

I’d also add, we’ve a really big garden, nearly three acres, and we seem to be continuously clearing areas the previous owners had planted inappropriate stuff, leaving what can only be described as scrub land underneath, we clear it, then simoly flatten it, and I chuck some grass seed down and rake it in, and so far it’s always lawned over, I’ve done it in the height of summer.

We did have some new turf laid in one area a couple of years back as it was at the front of the house, and it was looking ropey so I just chucked some grass seed on, raked it in gently didn’t bother with the holes, and it took just fine. Rain and warmth and grass seed germinates,

I’d certainly advise it before I paid anyone to come in.

This is the stuff I buy. I’d order some then wait till a rainy week is forecast and Chuck it over and rake it in.

www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01GTSA9FC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?psc=1&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&ie=UTF8

Now I've got loads of hedgehogs visiting my garden I'm a bit scared to use anything chemically on mine. It's a mess but the bees like the clover etc so it's not all bad

I’m going to give that a go, thank you. It’s got to be worth trying it before paying a professional. It’s looking a lot better today as we’ve had so much rain and May was so dry. But it needs more than rain!

The lawn treatment companies can be variable, normally they are a franchise so you have to use the person in your area. Either use an independent or do it yourself, if your lawn is small it's easy - you just need to get it to a standard then maintain. You will need to aerate, scarify, seed but this is best done in autumn especially if your children are going to continue playing on it. We scarified ours about 6 weeks ago and have applied weed and feed, a feed with a highter nitrogen content might be needed.

Look here: www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=413

Once you've got it looking good, don't mow it too short and mow it in different directions each time to minimise damage.

Thanks - Autumn it is! It’s definitely worth giving it a go.