Trying to recover lawn to green and healthy

Hi, I've just joined the forum as it looks like a great place to learn about and discuss gardening

We recently moved in to a new house, which was laying empty for 6 months before we moved in. It was a well known house build company that owned the house, and unfortunately they didn't maintain the gardens at the property. Once we moved in and first mowed the lawn, we realised just how bad the condition of it is. Here is a picture of the lawn when it was first cut:



We put Evergreen 4 in 1 complete grass treatment on the lawn about 2 weeks ago. It has improved the condition of the lawn slightly (areas of it look more green), but the lawn is still patchy and full of weeds. It has rained at least twice a week so it has kept the lawn well watered without the need for sprinkling yet. Here is a picture that I took today (the grass was mowed last week and it will be mowed again tomorrow):



I've just purchased Miracle-Gro Water Soluble Lawn Food and plan to use that on the lawn soon.

If anyone can provide any advise on how to get my lawn looking green and healthy, that would be very much appreciated. Im very much a beginner when it comes to all things garden related and would like to look after my front and rear lawn. The rear lawn is in bad condition as well but is slightly better than the front lawn.

Thank you!

 

Welcome Kerri I'm sure you'll get plenty of advice here for your lawn

 

Hi Kerri and welcome.

I too have started work on my lawn this year. I have thrown myself into the lawn literally. I've spent hours and hours on it, as well as researching on the world wide web.

There are vastly more experienced gardeners than me on here who can correct/add to my advice, but this is what I have done:

To clear moss/thatch:
- scarify
- rake
- spot weed
To start improving overall look:
- fertilise with granular fertiliser
Leave for a week or so, then:
- apply lawn top dressing
- sow seed to bare patches and generally overseed whole lawn ( try to protect from hungry birds
- water every night for 2 weeks for seeds to germinate
- repest lawn top dressing and seeding to areas which need a second treatment
- fertilise with liquid fertiliser, if not then more granular fertiliser

- water every other night, or every night if it's been shot and sunny day

It's a lot of work, but my lawn has been transformed. I would never have thought that I could make such a difference myself. I may try to post some before and after photos.

Good luck!

S

 

Hi Kerri. I hose my lawns after every cut , even if the grass is a bit moist, this has improved my lawns over the years..

 

Thanks for the info. I managed to get the first 3 things done last weekend.
scarify
- rake
- spot weed

Could you let me know what granular fertiliser, top dressing and seed you used.

There are tonnes to chose from.

Thanks,

 

I presume the grass was long when you mvoed in and first cut it, hence the "yellow lawn" in your first picture?

If that's the case I wouldn't do too much or expect too much this year, and I would ease up on feeding it otherwise it will go into the winter "soft" and be prone to disease etc. (or use a winter formulation of fertiliser, which will be low in Nitrogen)

I would spray with a selective herbicide weedkiller to tackle the weeds - you can do that now (but check instructions for number of days after mowing, and before mowing again, and in particular what you can do with the clippings - most of the products on the market persist in the clippings so you cannot use them in compost heap or as a mulch - if that's a problem just take the box off the mower and leave the clippings on the lawn.

You could over-seed the lawn this autumn, that will let you select a grass seed mix suitable for the lawn you want - e.g. a hard wearing football pitch for the kids, or if you have shady areas.

Then you should be in good shape to get the lawn looking really smart next year. Make sure you mow it each week, never miss a week, and never cut off more than 1/3rd of the height of the grass - mow it twice a week if it is growing so fast that you are going to chop off more than that (you might need to do that in late spring when it is growing at its fastest)