"Chris Hogg" wrote

Sarie wrote:
big snip about lawn woes

The first thing you need to do is decide what you want the final area
to look like. For example, do you want fence-to-fence grass; do you
want straight borders; do you want any hard landscaping like a paved
area for sitting out on, etc. Once you've decided your ultimate design
objective, it will be easier to proceed.

If it were mine, I would have quite a large shrub bed somewhere to
provide some vertical interest and colour and perfume at appropriate
times of the year, rather than just flat grass all over. Whether you
have straight shrub beds down each side, or one across the bottom, or
perhaps across one or both corners is up to you. IMO curved lines are
more pleasing to the eye and more interesting than straight lines. The
bigger the shrub bed, the less grass you have to cut, and the bed
gives you somewhere to spread your grass cuttings when you cut it (but
not in the early stages when you're cutting off tops of weeds or stuff
that's had selective weedkiller on it, see below).

Making a shrub bed will generate turves that you can use to fill the
shallow trench where the poured concrete path was, or use them in
other places that need grassing. IME it's surprising how even very
crudely laid and lumpy turves fairly quickly blend in with the
adjacent grass and self-level. I wouldn't try to lower the hump in the
middle. Just live with it. You won't really notice it after a while.

Once you've got the basic structure sorted, then you can think about
the grass itself. To start with, I'd just cut it. I assume you can get
a mower out there. A rotary mower (i.e. not the older type of cylinder
mower) set 'high' to start with. Repeated mowing will eventually get
rid of virtually all the weeds, but if you want to speed things up,
water with a selective weedkiller such as Verdone. Don't apply
immediately after cutting; let the weeds grow a bit first. One, or
perhaps two applications should get rid of virtually all the weeds,
and you can see what you're left with. You may be surprised how much
grass is actually there. You may also find that the patch you think is
dead will spring back to life. Don't be afraid of clover; I encourage
it in my grass. It's low growing, stays green longer than grass in dry
weather, and bees love the flowers. It also provides nitrogen and
saves you having to feed the grass so often.

You mentioned moss. This is usually a sign of compacted soil and poor
drainage. You can water with a moss killer, but the moss will probably
come back in time, and it looks pretty grim after it's first treated.
It would be better to spike the grass all over to improve the
drainage. Don't be tempted to get a 'spiker' of any sort. IMO they're
useless. You can't beat spiking with an ordinary garden fork, although
it's hard work. Drive the fork in as far as you can, preferably at
least six inches, and wiggle it a bit, before moving on about a foot
and repeating. Ideally, you should then spread gritty sand over the
spiked area and brush it in, so that it fills all the holes. More hard
work, but with restricted access to the garden, it may not be
practical to get the stuff out there.

I'm sure others will be along with more suggestions. Good luck.


As Chris says, it would be more efficient of your labour if you planned your
final garden now. You may wish for a pond, a sunny patio area or even two
for different times of the day, a tree or two for height, shrub/herbaceous
borders etc. These will all eat into the grass area that needs dealing with.
Yes, your final garden may be out of reach right now but planning for it now
will save lots of wasted effort.

--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK