Need serious help with my “lawn”

[Seziah]

So the rain has finally come to the south east and my lawn is a mess. I’ve always dug out the dandelions but didn’t mind the odd weed as its diversity for the insects. But now it’s gone way beyond - mallow that must’ve blown in from the fields, patches of those low leggy geraniums, dead nettle that’s started flowering, some sort of oxalis, forget me nots (I think), even an arum and god knows what else.

Some of the lawn is still earth, some of the grass is now quite long, and I don’t know the best way to tackle the invaders. I weeded the very small front lawn yesterday, it filled the garden waste bin halfway, took ages and there are big bare patches where probably more weeds will grow instead of grass. I started mowing but realised I then couldn’t see the weed leaves so had to weed first.

If I mow it really short will the weeds die? (I think not). If I fork the clumps and turn them over will the sun really kill the roots as I’ve read? It will probably be the whole lawn at this point. Does weed and feed actually work? I have cats and so do half the neighbours so I’m hesitant to use weed killer. Basically is there anything I can do other than digging every plant one by one 🙈

We have green thumb, they feed and spray 4 times a year. It’s gone from an awful weedy mess to quite good, although this summer was too much.

Same issues with my lawn.

I've mowed quite short then scarified (I have a very old electric one) then mowed again. The scarifier has taken away the big weeds.

My plan is to reseed and top dress with compost on the bigger gaps.

I have a dog so don't use any weedkiller other than a homemade mixture of vinegar, salt and fairy with mixed results.

How good was your grass before this summer? It’s taken a right beating hasn’t it?

Weed and feed mostly works by feeding the grass so it outcompetes the weeds, they are pet safe because they don’t actually have much weedkiller in them.

If you have a hosepipe ban then I would mow now and dig out the big things that mowing doesn’t affect like dandelions, but do nothing else. If you can water and/or if we get enough consistent damp to dampen the soil properly I would do some scarifying and reseeding and topdressing. Mowing should kill off all the tall stuff that’s blown in.

Salt will certainly kill anything, and is pretty bad for the soil, I wouldn’t be using that on anything other than specific plants.

I've come to the conclusion that plantain and brambles will be the only things living after a nuclear holocaust. At one point they were pretty much the only things green in the lawn. The advantage was that it did make it easy to spot and dig them out.

I thought I'd done a really good job, but we have this weed I've never seen anywhere else and there's always been a certain amount of it around the garden. It roots shallowly so it's easy to pull up. However after we had one lot of rain it seems to have taken this as a challenge and I have beds and the lawn full of these tiny irritating plants. They don't even flower nicely, tiny green/pale white ones if anything. I can forgive things like scarlet pimpernel because at least it looks nice!

I've just scarified the front lawn and reseeded. It was meant to rain heavily tonight when I checked this morning. In the time it took to do this the forecast has changed and it now won't rain until Wednesday.

Humph.

OK sounds like I need to do some scarifying and reseeding. Do you use a rake or do you have a scarifier? It was also meant to be damp here for a couple of days but now it’s saying just a few hours on Wednesday.

Yesterday I got four buckets of dandelions and dandelion-looking things. In the lawn I also found some nasturtiums (which would’ve been lovely in the beds two months ago), tomato seedlings, a very strong euphorbia seedling (I don’t even have a euphorbia) and a patch of lemon balm despite me keeping a small one contained in a pot. Aren’t seeds amazing! 🙈😅

I feel your pain. Our “lawn” is either very patchy or a carpet of what looks like dandelions. Before the summer we had patches of weeds but now more weed than grass. I did some hand weeding with one of those long tools that grab the weeds without you needing to bend down (very useful) and then smothered the area with fresh soil taken from the feckin mole hills that have popped up all over the lawn mixed with grass seed.

I am middle aged and never had a lawn before - I had no idea what an absolute pain in the arse a lawn is. I thought you just had to mow it!! Mowing is fine - takes 15 mins. But dear god the maintenance and fussing grass requires.

I used this in Spring and can’t believe how well it worked. Dandelions, moss, clover all gone. Really lush grass - had to cut it twice as often as usual.
I then had patches to re-seed, but didn’t have much luck with the seed I bought, although 3 months on, a lot has filled in naturally.
https://amzn.eu/d/00Ntui7U

My ancient scarifier is an electric one that I inherited from my mother, she used it very little. I think its a black and decker one. It does the job, has height adjustment.

@LadyGardenersQuestionTime the salt weedkiller mixture gets sprayed on weeds in my block paver paths, patio and driveway, nowhere near the lawns and borders. Weeds in the lawn get hand pulled or as last week scarified to death 😁

The product @SchoolNightWine recommended contains chemicals that are extremely toxic to aquatic creatures so don't use if you have a pond. The research done into the toxicity of the chemicals didn't cover the effect it has on bees. How convenient for them.

Scarifying (with a rake), aerating with a fork, adding compost and then reseeding when we are forecast more rain will transform your lawn. Some good strong new grass growth will outcompete many of your weeds and you can concentrate your efforts on the weeds that survive.

Many weeds dislike having their heads chopped off, so cut the grass every 3-4 days and then either pull up or treat persistent ones individually. At this time of year you can liberally chuck grass seed about with gay abandon, and it will germinate within days.

Don’t dig up the dandelions. They are life savers for your lawn, it’s one of their jobs. They loosen up the soil when it has become too hard and compact and they bring important nutrients up to the top soil from deep down in the soil. They are there for a readon, let them do their job.