Lawn repair..

I am a bit of a novice at this and would appreciate some advice

Moved into a new home a few months ago, so this is our first spring. We have a fairly large garden, with approx 1200 m2 at the rear and 150m2 to the front laid to lawn (if I am allowed to call it that). Cut the grass two weeks ago and realised how much moss there is in it. Not sure what the history of the lawn has been to date, but looks like the grass was cut regularly and not much else. Some areas are in shade, the weed count doesn�t appear too bad and I�d like to think that with some time and effort, a nice lawn could result.
So far I have spread lawn sand to kill the moss, and have large swathes of black stuff all around. I am now contemplating the next steps which I think are:
1 Hire mechanical scarifier and remove moss ââ?¬â?? 1 week after spreading lawn sand.
2 Hollow tine, top dress, re-seed etc. Mechanical aerators for hire seem to be like gold dust, and hate to think how much sand etc I�ll need. How much time between scarifying / hollow tining,
3 Reseed bare areas. When?

Previous gardening experience at the last house was to manually dug up the garden by hand, level and relay new turf. This gave great results. However at less than 200m2 going the nuclear route was not too difficult to contemplate. The scale of the new garden is a wee bit daunting at this time. That said would like to end up with a nice lawn and I am prepared to put in the time and effort. It would be great to sit in some green grass over the summer, even if more drastic measures have to be employed come the autumn
Would appreciate some practical guidance, on what to do and what to avoid. Unfortunately, don�t think that calling in a maintenance company is a credible option at this time. My wife is convinced that what I am really trying to do is turn the rear garden into a putting green, and she isn�t having that. She obviously is not a golfer and my aspirations are not quite that lofty.

Regards

ThreePutt

 

Your plan sounds good to me but may take a bit more than a season to get it looking as you would wish. Yes you can seed bare patches now - or you can patch it i.e. remove turf from the edge and patch into a bare bit - but you may need to protect seeded areas against the birds, and water in well.

 

the first thing to do is to make sure you are not cutting too short, it is much better allow grass to prosper rather than survive, it takes years to get to bowling green status, and it seems you are willing to work hard....
i assume you are on clay [bedfordshire], and you are willing to scarify ,,,,, this will remove the moss, but can lead to bare patches, the general advice is to top dress with loam and re seed every year!....... using seed at 1 oz per sq yard, any seed you use must be fine quality.
I have gone over to organic lawn fertiliser to improve lawn health, that means i am encouraging worms .... eeks, and other natural organsisms, also the makers claim it will decompose thatch, which is a problem in most lawns.

[ 19. April 2006, 07:35 PM: Message edited by: Lady Gardener ]

 

Might I suggest a good smattering of compost/other gardens' grass clippings (if you can get hold of it!) just after aeration and before seeding? This will provide a nice environment for the seeds to germinate.