Improve section of lawn

Hi, I have received good advice on here previously about trying to improve my lawn, which is most likely compacted and with poor drainage, a fair bit of moss and probably lots of builders rubble underneath some of the soil.
I have actioned some of the suggestions but have more to follow through on.

In the meantime I have to decided to focus on one smaller area in the garden so I can put a plan in action and hopefully see it work and improve the area and at least give me confidence through actual visible improvements. This will be a 90cm x 90cm patch. I have included some pictures below.

You will see the grass is quite bare, there is lots of moss and this area doesn’t get massive amounts of sun but it seems to get enough that it is not particularly soft here.

Available to me currently, I have the following:

• Top soil
• Lawn and turf dressing (contains fine peat, sieved fine loam and sand, also seems to be some fertiliser in it)
• Grass seed, same brand used by builder in garden
• After All in One - Lawn Feed, Weed & Moss Killer 10-0.9-1.7
• Miracle Grow Evergreen Fast Green Lawn Food - NK Fertilizer 16-4.1 with Iron (Fe)
• Shovel
• Garden Fork
• Brush

What is the best step by step approach here to improve this patch?
Presumably putting something down first to kill the moss.

Thanks

 

Thank you for your reply, I have been away for a few days. I am after ordering a scarifying rake so I should have that by the end of the week and can start with trying to remove the moss.
I must look into a specific seed mix for more shaded areas so. Out of interest, will the grass in this area look noticeably different than from the other seed used in the rest of the garden?

It probably didn’t show particularly well in those pics but I actually had gone around that area previously with a garden fork making holes in the general area.

 

If you're reseeding, you don't usually use food for quite a long time. When you create a new lawn from scratch, the soil can be improved a while in advance using a general fertiliser like BF&Bone.
If there's lots of rubbish underneath, there's not much you can do about that without digging it all out [not viable] or adding some soil/compost on top now and again to help the general construction, but if it isn't draining well, that's a different problem and you'd just have to keep spiking the area, and adding coarse sand or grit to the holes. It depends on how fussy you are about it all, and whether the area gets a lot of foot traffic or not.
You should be fine in your location for seeding at this time of year. We can easily reseed here through summer where I am because the ground doesn't dry out the way it does in southern areas, and it's warm enough so the seed germinates well, and I'd expect it would be similar in Kildare. Spring and autumn aren't as easy for us because of it being colder and wetter, and soil takes a long time to warm up in spring. That may change in the future though, with the way the climate is altering.

Re the seed not matching - you can broadcast some over the rest of the grass and it will all blend in over time.

 

Thank you, as helpful as always.

Scarifying rake has finally arrived, so I may get to test it this weekend!

When I say drainage is not great, it thankfully doesn’t seem to puddle at all, just some parts stay softer/wetter for longer than other parts (they also happen to be in the shade) and seem to have more moss on the soil under the grass than the rest of the garden which also has bits of moss.

To try and improve this section in the pics, I will now look to scarify it first. Should I cut the lawn area down to 2cms or 4cms first before scarifying?
Then I will aerate with the garden fork.
In terms of next step, following the scarifying and aeration, to improve general soil composition & help any future planted grass seed grow while reducing chances of moss growing back so vigorously, what should I apply to soil?

• Sharp sand or
• Topsoil or
• Lawn and Turf dressing I have which says it is made up of “contains a blend of fine sieved loam, peat and sand with added fertilizer to nourish and feed the lawn” or
• Something else I can purchase from a garden centre

Then following the above steps, I could look into applying a seed mix for more shaded areas.