"Simon T" wrote in message
...
I have a VERY small lawn at the bottom of my back yard/garden (patch of
grass might be a better description), measuring approximately 2.8m x 3.3m.

Trouble is its very patchy and course. Tried overseeing, new grass looked
fine at first, but didn't really take hold and died off over winter. One
corner appears to be over run with what looks like a type of clover (see
pics in links below).

Main problems appears to be the bottom of the garden is predominantly
shady (see pics in links below). The garden is West facing, Its
overshadowed by an oak tree in the bottom right corner, bounded either
side by a 6ft fence and there's a conifer to the left of the photo which
doesn't help, not to mention the garden shed in front of it and some large
shrub in the field behind that backs onto my place, so direct light is a
major problem. Plus it seems part of this "lawn" covers what may have been
a gravel path .

Having battled in vain for several years for a nice green space at the
bottom of my garden/yard, I'm thinking maybe I should just ditch the idea
of grass and put something else down instead?

Don't really want gravel or slabs, was thinking maybe decking? Unless of
course there's some miracle grass that can grow through stony soil and
loves the shade?

Any suggestions?

First pic showing how shady it is (the patio stone in the middle was put
there by the previous occupant, I use it for standing a barbeque bucket
on)
http://tinyurl.com/nd84bou

Second pic showing the somewhat invasive clover type of plant that covers
a large chunk of the corner
http://tinyurl.com/o8gvart

there's fake lawn as someone else has suggested, they have it in my local
builders merchants and it does look very real - not like the cheap stuff on
a roll that greengrocers use.
It starts at £18 per metre plus vat, it's laid on grit and the underside is
sealed with a special tape, which you have to buy seperately, considering
it's such a small area, maybe this is worth a try, I certainly wouldn't pay
for a large area to be done.

I've guestimated this patch to be around £200 if you DIY, it may be cheaper
(but not quicker) to glyphosate the whole area, apply membrane, raise it up
4 inches with edging of some kind, (with the membrane going under the
edges), fill with fresh soil/compost and either turf or seed and see if that
makes any difference. The new stuff will be relatively weed-free, have a
decent depth of soil to grow in and might get more established and cope with
the shade a bit better.