Can I renovate a lawn now? or wait till spring?

Hi all. New here.

I have two very small front lawns (back lawn is fine).
Hopefully you can see from the pictures the condition the lawn is in. Many many weeds and Moss and grass that doesn't look very healthy.









The earth patches are where I recently ripped up some thick moss by hand and put down some "patch magic" I had left over from the back garden.

Anyway...

I plan to:

• Weed and Moss kill.
• Scarify
• Aerate
• Over seed with top dressing and seed
• feed

I'm looking for an as near perfect lawn at the front as possible. It's not very big so hopefully will manage it.

Something like this (eventually) would be lovely.



The big question is, I was planning to do it next spring but getting itchy feet. Can I do it now? Would it look decent later this year? P.S. Im just north of Glasgow and from what I can see August is looking pretty wet throughout.
Thanks.

 

You're at just about the ideal time to start sorting out your lawn, but to do it thoroughly will take a few months.
Starting now I would put a weed control down asap, to kill off any perenial weeds.
Then towards the end of August / early September put down your moss control.
Leave it a couple of weeks to turn the moss black and then you will be ready to do the complete regeneration work in Sept / Oct. That is the the perfect time to scarify, aerate, and sow new grass seed, as the soil will still be warm and their should be plenty of moisture in the air, and any weedkiller will have dispersed.
Leave it alone over the winter and you should have a pretty decent lawn come April!

 

Thanks,

I have heard a lot of people doing this is late summer/autumn But ive always been confused, the grass wont grow/thicken over winter so why then and not spring?
I did once overseed in Late September and the seeds never germinated as it was too cold.

 

Grass needs at least 7 degrees Celsius in the soil to germinate, so I doubt the soil would be colder than that in September, even in Scotland!
The reasoning is that getting the grass to germinate is the tough bit, and in spring soil temperatures can take a long time to get up to speed because of the winter lag (take this year for example - I didn't start seeding until well into April). Seeding that late means you won't have a usable lawn until July / August.
However, get the seed germinating and the grass up and away in Autumn and it will sit there as little grass plants and sit out whatever the winter can throw at it, and have a really good head start for spring and you'll have a usable lawn much earlier!

 

That makes perfect sense! Ok, one final question. If they are sitting as little and thin plants over autumn/winter/spring won't this bare ground between the plants be a perfect spot for weeds and Moss can take hold?

 

Well, that is why you try to kill all the perennial weed roots before you start the main work ... you won't get much coming in over the winter, but there will be one or two weeds. The good thing is, the new grass will be tough enough by then to be able to take a spring treatment of weed killer and fertiliser, so you can kick them off nice and early before they become a problem!
The key is, you can't really weed and seed at the same time (as the weed killer inhibits the seed germination), which is why trying to cram weed control and seeding in the spring can cause additional problems.
If you get moss coming in, then you've got other problems that you should sort out before you even sow seed (e.g. compaction, deep shade, waterlogging etc)

 

Fantastic words of wisdom.

Ok final question, ive just fed the lawn today (not weed killer feed) granular stuff.
And there are those "patch magic" areas.

Will that cause me problems with starting the tasks.

 

Yes, it is a good idea to feed the lawn now, especially if you're now getting some rain like the rest of us. The patched areas should also be up and away in no time, so should be fine come sept / oct.
Although if you're going to be scarifying with an intention of re-seeding, you'll probably rip it all up again!
Glad to be of help ... hope it all goes well!

 

So when should I put down the weed and moss killer? (I was going to buy a feed/kill thing in Spring) But now Ive already fed, wouldnt that be over feeding?

 

Don't use a combined weed and moss killer.
Just put a weed killer down soon, then a separate moss killer down a couple of weeks before you intend to scarify.
If you've already put a feed down, then don't put down any more just yet!

 

Perfect thanks! (Last question I promise!!) Cant I just get a weed/moss killer combo that has no feed? then scarify 2 weeks later?

 

Not if you intent to overseed your lawn after scarifying, as the weedkiller will stop the grass seed from germinating.
You need to leave at least six weeks (on average) between putting down a weed control and seeding new grass seed.
As I said above, you can't weed and seed at the same time!

 

If you've put a feed down already then how about a liquid selective weedkiller (spray on)? I think that the combined Weed & Feed is very expensive ... although if you have significant weeds it may be more cost effective, but where the weeds are only dotted about, as yours will be in future years hopefully!, then a spray only needs to be applied where there are actually weeds growing

I definitely think that seeding in Autumn is better than Spring. The weed seeds will be shutting down for the winter, so less will germinate now, than with a Spring sowing, so the grass will get a head start.

If yours failed to germinate last Autumn either the seed was duff, or perhaps it was dry? I water mine to make sure it starts germinating immediately - rather than waiting for wet weather and crossing my fingers!

 

I've just had a thought guys. Seeing as how my lawns at the front are so small. Instead of killing and waiting and scarifying and all that.
Am I as well the just dig off the turf and reseed straight away? I mean that would be fairly quick and easy to do. Fresh start and all that?

 

If you over-seed then you can spread some topsoil, thinly, to get a good level and a bit of soil contact for the new seed, and then sow the grass seed (at a much lower rate than sowing for a new lawn)

If you want to re-seed you need to prepare a seed bed. Dig it (or rotavate), rake smooth, tread down to firm, re-rake, remove stones, etc. (The same preparation whether you lay turf or sow seed). If you strip off the existing turf you take the weeds / weed seed with it, but also an inch of topsoil - which, particularly if your topsoil is thin, is often best avoided; however, stacking the old turf, grass side down, for a year will make lovely "loam". Oftentimes it is better to kill the existing grass and weeds with Glyphosate and then incorporate it into the soil as part of the new lawn preparation, to avoid losing that topsoil (and the effort of digging it up!)