Lawn Advice

[Ben Wing]

Hi all,

Recently moved into a house in a nice little village outside Basingstoke. One of the reasons we bought the house was because it has a nice big garden. The house was built in the 50's, and according to our neighbours, no one has ever really done a great deal with the garden. So, we have an 25m x 8m lawn that is 60 years old, and has never really been looked after. As a result, its a bit of a state.

There is a 2x4 metre section which is very badly thatched, and a lot of the lawn was riddled with moss. I have managed to kill the moss off, and scarified the living daylights out of it. I now have lots of dead bare patches. The soil is slightly acidic, and is potentially ex river bed / flood plain (very stoney, and if you dig down a foot or so the soil is so dry it is virtually sand. Where I have started to cut the lawn and care for it some sections have simply died.

My question is this. What is the best way to make this lawn look like a nice lawn?

I have been aerating periodically, but with solid tines. Would hollow tines make a difference? Given the soil do I need to dig it up and start again?

Any advice would be appriciated.

Thanks

Ben

[songbird]

...

just keep mowing it regularly using a mulching mower, have the height up so that the plants will shade the ground.

when you removed the thatch you removed your organic matter which would also hold moisture and encourage other things to grow.

add some compost in layers once in a while.

before your fall/rainy season starts add some plant seeds that you want to encourage to fill in and some more compost. if it doesn't rain enough keep it moist to get the plants started.

keep mowing at a decent height on a regular basis.

songbird1

[stan81]

some good advice right there!

[Newgene McMensa]

I had a house in Vegas once that had been a desert scene (plastic sheet covered with gravel). I dumped a few bags of steer manure on it and roto-tilled the Obama out of it. Then picked up as many pieces of shredded plastic sheet that I could. (Was not practical to remove the plastic first - ground was hard and plastic was already disintegrating. Then I spread (sorry ladies) all purpose grass seed as recommended, raked it and kept it wet until the new grass was over an inch high. Turned out pretty dang good.

[trader4]

I'd wait until early Sept, then kill it all off with Roundup (glyphosate). When it'd dead, in about 10 days, mow it very short and rake up the debris. Rent an overseeder and seed it with a quality grass seed that's appropriate for the area, apply starter fertilizer and keep it constantly moist. I'd start with a new, uniform, quality grass, instead of just accepting and pouring money into whatever mess is growing there now.

Google lawn renovation.