Help needed with Lawn!

[copels007]

I have 3 boys who love to play football on the lawn!

My lawn used to look lovely but last year and this year it has turned really patchy.

've tried to repair some of the patches but you'll see that the seed I used didn't match and it loos worse than it did before:

've just had it aeriated and scarified but nothing is growing! The chap I used replaced the plugs with sand for better drainage.

Do you think I should get it aeriated again and replace plugs with seed?

I can't stop the kids playing football but I really want my nice lawn back! Any help much appreciated!

Steve

[copels007]

I applied lawn feed last weekend but I've not seen any improvement. The packet said I didn't need to water in but should I put more down and water?

Should I be putting any seed down to cover the patches?

Thanks for responding.

[trader4]

You don't need to put water down, but the fertilizer isn't going to start to dissolve and move to the roots until it gets water, either from rain or you. Also, how active grass is depends on the temp, type of grass, etc. If the grass isn't ready to grow, no amount of fertilizer is going to make it happen.

I certainly would have when you did the aeration and "scarification". You Britts are big on the scarification. I would never do both aeration and that at the same time. Both damage and kill some of the grass. And what exactly is the point to scarification? It's useful IF you have a thatch problem, which clearly you don't. Doing it damages the grass and rips it up. It's worth doing IF you have a real thatch problem. No evidence of that in your pic.

Whether you can put seed down now depends partly on what fertilizer product you put down. If it's a weednfeed type, they are generally not compatible with seeding. See what the bag says. If it's just slow release fertilizer, then you can seed. Ideally you'd use starter fertilizer, but if you have a typical general purpose lawn fertilizer it will be OK too. If you seed, then keep it constantly moist until you have good growth, then you can slowly back off the watering. You don't need to flood it, just keep the surface damp.

Other factors are how loose the soil still is. If it's not, I'd rent an over-seeder, which cuts grooves and drops seed. And I'd also kill those couple spots with grass that looks way different. Then re-seed over the whole thing with an appropriate, high quality seed.

I'd also test the soil PH and make sure it's not out of whack. Adjust if needed.

Fall is by far the best time to seed, renovate, etc. You can still do it now, but it's more problematic.