A real mess of a lawn!

Hi all,

To cut a long story short, my tenants have left my lovely garden to ruin in my old house that I rent out.

I have no idea how to renovate to get it back to its lovely state, as I'm wanting to sell the property. I've only got a short space of time to do it, and cannot afford to have it done professionally or to get it re-turfed.

I can't describe how sad it makes me, there is hardly any grass left at all, mostly weeds and dead bits patches (brown bits on the photo). A fence panel has also come down and has been lying on the grass/weed for god knows how long, so everygthing underneath will be dead.

Whats the quickest/cheapest way to get it back looking reasonable?

Here's a before pic (I know the grass looks a bit brown/dry, but i did treat it and it did look lush and green after a bit):


And here's how it looks now (heartbreaking :( )

 

Give it a good cut , edge and weed and it will look very much better. You can buy patching packs of seed and fertiliser quite cheaply and this would help as well.
If the weather there is as wet as it has been here the grass seed should be up in no time!

 

Ok thanks!

Does anyone know what to do with the brown patch (looks like hay?) in the bottom right of the picture.

Shall I just dig it up completely and fill it with topsoil and then seed it?

 

I would just rake it to get the dead stuff off and reseed. It looks as though something has been on top of it for a while, in which case it shouldn't be necessary to dig it.