First time home owner, want to fix lawn

Hi there - I purchased my first house a few months ago and the main factor was the great garden size. It's L shaped and one side has grass and many plants and the other is being cleared and prepared for turfing.

It's only for kids to play on so not after anything award winning, but already I am getting carried away with the fun possibilities and have spent a small fortune on the garden so far (mainly tools and a new fence). It's so enjoyable!

So my question; the side that has grass already is heavily covered in moss, I have purchased a scarifier and have run this over it which has made it quite thin and very short. I had to empty the collector after every 2 lengths and went over it twice.

What surprises me is the length of the grass - it looked long before and now it's incredibly short, which makes me wonder if it was 90% moss.

I have notice the grass doesn't grow, I only need to cut once every 5 weeks or so.

So I am tempted to now put a moss killer on (a 4 in 1 treatment), I have read conflicting advice whether this should be done before or after scarifying, but it's too late for me.

My issue is that I am scared of killing the lawn because the moss seems quite prevalent, and my fear is that if that's not there it's going to be 80% mud and the wife will kill me!

Should I do it?

 

Welcome to the forum @mickmick9 . I agree with @JWK it isn't "broken" as far as for the purposes of kids play area, so why fix it ! Your lawn looks lovely and I can picture kids doing somersaults and other tumbling

 

I agree with John and Lori, moss is so much softer on the feet for kids. One side of my lawn is purposely mossy as it is the larger side that has all the running round on and one section is quite thick grass and that's where the kids (my) pool goes. If your adamant about thicker grass, scarify again and re seed when the weather warms up a bit, I wouldn't put moss killer down just yet.

 

Thanks all, just wanted it to look nice AND be good for the kiddies. I guess it's risky killing the moss?

 

to GC @mickmick9 and congratulations on your new (first) home

Exciting times ahead for you and your family. Looking forward to seeing how your garden develops over time.

 

Thanks! Can't wait to get out there. Got so many questions

 

I have recently moved into a new house builders development where the back lawn was left as merely rotavated mud with what I have now found has no drainage properties. A new lawn was laid 3 weeks ago but it still has not knitted together, however the grass does no appear to be dying.

When the guy laid the turf, he laid and leveled about an inch deep sand mixture with the thought this would provide drainage. The turf was then laid over this.

Three weeks later, the front end of the garden has knitted together and seems fine, however the back of the garden is a different story, when I eventually walked on it a couple days ago, it was like walking on a bean bag in areas. I could lift a sections of the rolled turf as if it had just been laid and underneath was almost a pool of water with sand.

Its as if after the turf was laid, any rainwater has weeped to below the turf but not percolated into the ground and sat there.

Will this eventually knit together or will I have problems with this grass in the furture years with a marshy back garden. If so any solutions as the whole moving in costs has eaten up my budget.

 

I feel your pain @Dav080380, I am in a very similar situation myself, minus the new lawn. It is a wetland out there.
I do hope you find a solution.

 

I am hoping it knits together over time but just a new lawn I wouldn't think I would face this problem.