Tatty Lawn advice.

[Seaoftroubles]

What is the best thing l can do to improve my small lawn? Parts are OK but other bits are bare or are full of moss, weeds and violets. I'm aware drainage is not ideal as we are at the bottom of an embankment but what can l do to help it look less tatty?

It depends what you want to achieve really. Better coverage, aerate with a garden fork, scratch the surface with a spring tine rake and scatter seed once the soil temperatures come up a bit. To remove moss and weeds will require treatments (one for each purpose), then follow steps above. Total renovation, remove all turf, weeds etc, cultivate soil and either returned or seed from scratch.

I would contact a local lawn care company but avoid greenthumb and try and get someone independent. Google "lawn care" and your area and a few will pop up. Rather than wasting money on garden centre treatments they will apply 4 professional standard treatments a year which will make a huge difference! If it's really bad it may need some reseeding but you can do a lot just by applying the right fertiliser and watering it through the dry months.

Thank you, l have a spring tine rake so will start with that. I wasn't sure what to buy to get rid of the moss and violets but will do a search. Hopefully l will find a wild life friendly product. I'm not too fussed about it being perfect, l was just hoping to achieve some decent coverage.

Thanks also for advising re a lawn care company, l hadn't considered that. I will check out some local independent ones.