nabberuk wrote:

We've recently moved into our home and i would like to relay our front
lawn.

how large an area?


Reasons for this a

- It's really uneven

large puddles or just rough to walk on or?

if there are significant puddles you may want to
reconsider your overall layout and drainage before
doing anything else.

observe the area during a hard rain and see if you
are losing valuable topsoil and organic materials via
erosion.

if the previous owner was mowing and removing the
clippings then they are likely a part of the reason
why the soil has become so poor through time.

you won't know these answers until you see large
rains happen and observe the water flows.

after you've seen what is going on then you can adjust
the area to encourage retention of topsoil and organic
materials while also making sure no longer term puddles
are forming (or if you want some water retaining areas
you can design the lower spots to do that and change the
plant mix for those areas).


- It's mostly moss

The lawn doesn't get much sun due to the hedge which i think has been
encouraging the moss. I've read that you can buy seed that will happily
live in shady conditions.

sure, but shade always limits growth of grasses.
much easier to use different plants than to keep pouring
grass seed on an unsuited area.

mosses are not a problem but indications of prevalent
conditions. they don't grow tall enough or fast enough
to outcompete grass and should not be removed or killed.
change the light, drainage, organic material retention
and the rest will eventually sort itself out.


My plan for this is to do to the following;

- Cover the grass with black plastic in order to kill the current lawn.
- User a weed killer to kill any further weeds
- Rake all debris
- Flatten and mix in top soil
- lay seed
- water regularly
- cut frequently on a high setting after roots have bedded in.

Does this sound viable? Also i'm not sure what sort of time frame i
should aim for?

much more intensive and expensive than what is needed.

level it as needed, add sorely missing organic materials
in thin layers along with your desired grass seeds. thin,
lower or remove the hedge (consult an expert on hedge or
other tree/shrub varieties if you really must have grass).
retain all clippings on the lawn, do not use weed sprays,
fertilizers, etc as they are a waste of money and often do
more harm than they accomplish.

after a bit of time you should have some new growth filling
in and the moss will lose out to the grasses as the moss gets
smothered and shaded by the grass.

keep mowing as needed (on as high a setting as your mulching
mower will allow) and if there are any bare spots you can repeat
the light layer of mulch and grass seed addition to fill them
in. if the area of moss is wide you can speed things along by
transplanting plugs of healthy grasses but don't remove the
surrounding moss because it is what is left of your soil community
and holder of nutrients and moisture.

don't worry about weeds, they are not harmful to anyone or
anything. just mow often if they offend and those that cannot
survive repeated mowing and competition with the grasses will
go away. those that remain are well suited for your area and
provide diversity for animals and the soil. clovers, plantains,
and dandelions are foods that rabbits will prefer over many
other lawn/garden plants. if you get rid of them then the
bunnies start looking harder in other places for food...

when you start seeing signs of worms being active in your
lawn again then you've returned it to health and it should need
nothing more than regular trims and monitoring to make sure
the clippings and topsoil are staying in place. if you do not
want the lawn to fade during dry spells then you will want to
add some water, but i don't consider that very useful either
if there are a good mix of plants then some will do better during
dry spells when the grasses slow down or go dormant (yarrows and
thymes being good examples). if you do add water it is best to
add it in one good soaking than to do a lot of shallow applications.

the best time to do such things is in the early fall before it
gets too cold, but perhaps your leveling work and trimming to
allow more light in can be done now and then you can see how it
goes until the site is leveled and then add some selected seeds
and the compost and observe how that goes before doing anything
else.

good luck.


songbird