Lawn newbie advice

I gave the lawn a cut last night, then leveled the bare patch on the side and put down some grass seed, then lightly covered the top in soil.

I then used a digging fork and punctured many holes in the lawn in rows, usually about 6 inches apart to try and aerate it. I could only get the fork down around 4 inches in most places, but I did a little circle with the fork when in to open it up more. Seems to be a lot of stone underneath, or else its a shallow bed. It was a lovely night last night, but the dryness really showed me how much moss is still in the lawn!

It rained overnight, so the picture above is from this morning.

When the next dry day comes I may add the Evergreen in to try and kill off the rest of the moss. After that I will rake it out, should I then add more lawn seed and something else in a mix, or is lawn seed on its own enough?

The garden is reasonably flat but along the path on the left side it slopes off, how can I level it? I have heard of people using a sand and soil mix, is this a good idea?

 

Sand and top soil mix would be good to get it level. Once you have raked out the lawn you could add some seed but you will find after a couple of weeks the grass will have a lot more space to grow. Give it some feed and cut regularly and will come back a lot stronger.

 

I added in the Evergreen on Monday around lunchtime. The moss has started to turn black already in various places. Should I leave it around a week before raking out and then lawn feeding ? It's been really sunny last few days and should be until the weekend, so I am watering the grass as often as possible to let the supplements soak in

 

Leave it a couple more days until its properly worked its magic then get the rake on it. :-)

You will be amazed how much will come out. May look a bit bare for a week or so after raking but will soon come back strong.

 

Quick question(s) -

After 3 days, the grass is pretty dark in places all over. The moss is dying! Horray!

Is it wise to wait until Monday evening, (if dry) before raking it out? By then the Evergreen will have been on the lawn for a week. Enough time?

I am quite confident there will be bare patches and the lawn will look a bit of a mess.
I plan to give it a light cut and then apply some grass seed.

If I apply new grass seed to the thin areas, does that mean no cutting the lawn for a few weeks?

 

Why sand and top soil mix? I sm also going to grass seed an previously used flower bed, but was only going to use bags of top soil.

 

Most top soil you buy in bags will be good texture anyway and will drain well so I wouldn't worry about it.

 

Current status - Evergreen has been in the grass for 4 days now and streaks of black are showing.

Last night I leveled and sowed out the long bed at the front and the small one at the side. I need more soil to do the one at the very back.

 

Cheers - weather permitting it is on my list for this weekend.

 

Here is the lawn after 8 days or so of Evergreen. Down the side on the tiny strip the new grass has shot up nicely. The small patch on the left I sowed out a week or so ago has also came up quite well.

The question is, when can I rake out the black stuff and mow? I was hoping to do this around the weekend if its dry.... or should I leave it longer? I will of course not mow over any newly sown grass.

I now have a spreader with some "After Cut Lawn Thickener" and a lawn roller. I was hoping to mow the grass just a little bit, spread the lawn feed and seed in.... and then use a lawn roller, 1/4 full of water to help push the seed and feed into the soil. I know a heavy roller will make the soil compacted, so I don't want to be too heavy handed.

Any advice and thoughts are greatly appreciated

 

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Took this last night, 13 days after my last upload, one week or so after a heavy scarify. Got so much horrible stuff out!!

I have overseeded the lawn and gave a bit extra to the thin patches.

Its in rather bad shape in places, but starting to recover (it was all a horrible black colour after scarifying). Also the new grass is coming along nicely.

@Sheal, do you think all will be a good bit better in a number of weeks? Do you reckon that's the most scarifying I should do until next year? What other jobs would you recommend to help get this lawn into shape?

 

Hi Zola, I would keep the lawn and the newly sown patch watered regularly particularly during hot dry spells this summer. Summer is not the ideal time to work on lawns but on occasions it's necessary, I would leave it now until late August to recover and any further work that needs to be done can be started then.

 

18 days later it is has greened up a bit I think! Also the new grass is filling in nicely.

A couple of days ago I gave the lawn a small trim and then I added 4 bags of topsoil from homebase, covered over patches/holes and then sowed them out with new grass.

Hopefully in 4 or 5 weeks the patches will be filling in well too.

 

It does look better Zola and the new grass seems to have taken well.