uneven overgrown lawn.

I have just taken over a small lawn. its very neglected,browning with tufts here n there and uneven .What is the best or easiest way to sort it ?Dig the whole lot up and start again ? Or overseed and add compost on top ?

 

Could you give us a better description of the lawns interms of the types of grasses present ie. are they all coarse and very long or are they very fine, but tufty and lacking vigour?
I'm guessing your going to say both.

IMHO, replacing a lawn completely is expensive and in the majority of cases completley unneccasary. Even if full of moss and uneven, few lawns are beyond redemption and this is the best time of year to start the work.

If you could give me a better a description, or even better, a picture I'll be able to give you a better opinion.

Cheers,

Ian.

PS. dont use compost when top dressing or overseeding, its far better to use screened steralised top soil or a pre mixed lawn dressing.

 

Your right its both types of grass. Some is stubby and some fine and some bald. some is growing sideways even....
It all looks brown and greenish and a mess.
Will take on board your suggestions so far..

 

So long as the area is already quite level, I'd do the following.

1- Cut the lawns to approx 1" and start mowing as often as possible. Loads of mowing encourages more vigorous and thicker growth.

2- Treat with an autumn feed that contains a good dose of iron (kills moss). An autumn feed has less nitrogen and more phosphates and pottasium. It's these ingredients that will encourage thicker growth.

3- Leave for at least 3 weeks and then scarify thoroughly. Do this on a dry sunny day and you'll fetch out far more thatch and moss.

In an ideal world the above would have been done at the end of Sept and the beginning of Oct which would have enabled you to top dress and reseed. In my opinion, it's probably a little to cool now to reseed, so persevere with the mowing as often as possible. Keep this up and then in the spring you'll need to top dress and reseed the lawn in the areas where growth hasn't sufficiently recovered.

In the vast majority of lawns I have worked on, this is the best way to renovate a lawn. I'll give you some tips on dressing and reseeding in the spring. A pic of the lawn would be useful, but in my opinion, if you've got the bare bones of a lawn already there, it's easier to work with than to replace.

Hope this helps.

Ian.

www.ideallawns.biz

 

If the lawns are really uneven, build up the levels with lawn dressing and then follow the steps above. Just don't reseed untill the spring.