Lawns

So long as there isn't standing water, and your boots aren't squelching into the surface, I would have thought anytime, rain or shine, is good with a fork. If you were using a hollow-tined tool to aerate them then sticky soil, when wet, would probably be more inclined to clog it up

I try not to because it all sticks to the mower and the shoot to the collecting bag, so tends to "block" more. But it won;t hurt the grass (but best not to cutr the grass when frost is forecast, as the newly cut tips may get "burnt" by the frost which will make the lawn look a bit brown - but...

personally I'd give it a year, more if you are not in a rush. (Provided you didn't use selective weedkiller on it in the last year)

Who is laying the lawn? They can advise on the type, mostly it depends on how much shade the lawn gets - that might be the problem with the old one getting full of moss. The main thing with a new turf lawn is to water it a lot, your chalky soil will dry out very quickly so you need to keep...

The rubble might be from previous buildings I guess. Our last house built in the 1930s, I found a crazy paved path a couple of inches under the lawn that had just been grown over.

If you see plenty of healthy earthworms, the soil is good, but will almost certainly still benefit from some compost or well rotted manure. Or, you can always cheat, and just grow plants that don't care this year (I like nasturtium for that purpose, but there are many very pretty 'green manure'...

Not a real problem for me as I did a last cut when it stopped growing, and at about 1.5" Now it is starting to grow again bright green shoots, so I it gets to 2.5" I will do a cut down to 1.5" if there is no fear of frost Jack McHammocklashing

The other sites probably know what they are taking about though You can't. If I'm putting on something that will kill the plants I don't use the spreader/chucker, I use the Seeder instead (when using the "seeder" the "stuff" just drops out of holes in the bottom of the hopper as the...

This is the stuff I'm thinking of getting to separate my border from the lawn ...Mow Over Lawn Edging

Me speak Binary. No I haven't got beyond roman numerals yet.

That is just what I have been doing this week with my Lawn (meadow) ready for my Veg plot, only 12' x 12' but it is hard graft at my age, and rain has stopped play, what was nice light loam, is becoming compacted mud with me standing on it, So I have forked it all over, and awaiting it to frost...

Ya Boo! Fiddlesticks!!!

actually, your lawn looks very good a good spring high nitrogen fertilizer such as this will perk it up nicely: Country Club 18-4-12+2%Mg | Lebanon Country Club | Pitchcare Shop that is a large bag ... you only need approx 30 grams per square meter, so depending on the size of your...

Good evening and welcome to the site. It sounds to me like a lack of water. Turf MUST be kept moist for it to establish. Grass seed needs to be lightly raked into the top inch of soil and again, kept moist. And moist MEANS moist, not soaked once a week but lightly watered every evening.

Oh OK .... nick a square meter from your local community centre at night .... or from your neighbour :D

if we look at the one corner of the garden, with the hedge and the trees in leaf, there will be a lot of shade (I'm guessing, as it depends which way is south) I have added some similar size trees in leaf .... you may need to overseed some areas with shade loving grass?

The Oak leaves, similarly to Beech, take forever to break down. If you have access to a Garden Vac then sucking them through that will chomp them down to small bits. They can then be used as mulch, or will be less of a problem in compost - although they still take a long time to break down...

OK, thanks. :thumb:Will get some pics at the weekend of the areas affected.Perhaps could be shade on one part, and I think poor drainage on another.To aerate a large lawn would a machine be better?I am right in saying that you can get a scarify machine that can also aerate?Will check...

I would go for high cut with box on , rotary mower only at this time of year, sound advice from clueless, be careful as grass not actively growing if mean temperature under 7*C so could easily do more harm than good if you are too agressive.

Your idea may work, but not if the water table is high anyway. What I'd do is dig a small test hole and see if it fills with water. Doing a test hole over winter is a good time to see what happens. If you have a high water table then a soak away won't really help, you will need to drain it off...