Rejuvenate the lawn (hopefully)

The front lawn is in pretty poor condition, a very lot of moss and a lot of broadleaf weeds along with weed grasses. That's about all that's keeping it green! So along with the garden in general it's something that we're planning to tackle soon.

It's on clay and part in shade part in sun with hedges around.

Can I check the order in which I'm planning:

- remove big broadleaves by hand.

- Moss killer same day - I have a liquid one in the shed already so planning to use that this week

- Scarify - with a rake about 2-3 weeks later? So into March. I've read lightly with spring tine rake to get some thatch out, but before I've used a normal garden rake which brought almost everything out. Good or bad idea? This will collect the dead moss up too

- Hollow tine aerator - I'm planning on buying one, just one you stand on. I used a fork few years ago but it was very hard work. Moss probably takes hold because of the poor soil conditions? There's areas where it's all moss and no grass at the moment.

- Reseed

Could anyone advise on what to look for in seed mix please? It would be nice to have a fine finish. It doesn't get walked on. But some of it is in shade some in sun. So should I just get a shade mix? Or will that just be more like course grass? We've bought cheap seed before from Wilko and the grasses are quite course and woody looking. Can anyone advise what they tend to be? And maybe I should avoid mixes with them in?

Can it be seeded just after aerating or should you wait? Wait for the holes to close up?

I don't intend to top dress. I did that a few years ago and got the most enormous crop of weeds. I'm not sure if they came from the compost or just ended up in it.

And I have a spot contact weedkiller spray (which admittedly isn't very good) but there's some left. When should I do this? For the ones I can't manage to pull up.

I have a liquid lawn feed but I think this comes much later? Maybe in the summer after the seed has germinated for a few months?

Thank you

 

I can agree with your timetable but:
Unless your lawn is dry (drier than mine), you aim to work on it too soon.
Ensure moss is fully dead (brown and easily loose ) before you scarify. This will limit damage to grass and avoid spreading moss that is alive.
Aeration by hollow tine is sound but hard work. Better to do half lawn properly than not...
Suggest you do top dress after with sharp sand and , ideally, peat*.Brush into holes to fill, with a witches broom or bamboo.* second option would be seed compost/sharp sand mixed with Vitax q4
Appreciate your thoughts re reseeding but fine lawn grasses will be out competed by coarse (rye)grass. As you are not replacing all the grass, effect may not be worth the extra cost.
Keep off the lawn when wet (when a heel leaves a mark )

 

Hi

March would be a much easier time to start.. grass is growing away yet ..and far to wet

 

If your soil has any pebbles in it, you might find the hollow-tine aerator harder work than the fork. I gave up on mine because little pebbles kept getting stuck in the tines, and went back to my fork. I use a border fork which is smaller and lighter than a full size one.

 

Thank you for your thoughts. Reading reviews about the hollow tine aerators people were saying they found them blunt and some chose to sharpen them. A lot of modern garden tools seem to be made blunt. There are some stones, I hadn't considered that @JennyJB

Rye grasses, you're right @infradig I did a bit of reading too and this is what I've largely got. Unfortunately.

Have seen a couple of different shade seed mixes. I take the point on going for a fine mix, there will be rye still left from what's in now.