"Steve" wrote in message
...
Hi all,

I think I am looking for a bit of advice really .....

I had a lawn turfed approximately 18 months ago ... This was carried out
"proffessionally" with what I believe was a good quality turf supplied by
a
national supplier.

The problem is I am not happy with the condition of the lawn. It grows
very
slowly ( I could leave it 3 weeks before it needs a cut ) and then not all
of the lawn. It is patchy .... Yellow and a darker brown in places ...all
in
all, not the lawn I had hoped for....Or paid for ...!!!

snip
A few questions for clarification :-)

What was the lawn laid on?
Is this a new site (i.e. brand new house, brand new garden) or is it a
change to an older garden?
How does it fare in the winter? Most lawns get lush and green over the
winter due to lots of water and no stress from hot sunlight.

From your description it sounds as though the underlying soil has a major
problem. Grass is a prolific weed that self seeds and grows almost
anywhere - if the turf has been down for 18 months then it has had plenty of
time to establish and for any dead areas to be colonised from nearby live
areas.

I would not initially blame the turf - I might ask questions about the
preparation of the site.
Did your 'professional' do the whole thing, or just come and lay the turf?

As an experiment (given the current wet weather) you might lift a small area
of turf (perhaps a square metre or two) and dig down into the soil. If there
is soil to a spit depth (not builders rubble) then give it a good digging
over, add some slow release fertiliser such as Growmore, tread it down and
rake it level, then relay your turf with a good watering.
[Ediors note: - if the soil is poor e.g. heavy clay and no topsoil, or just
subsoil, you may have to add more than just a fertiliser to get it up to
scratch.]

If the turf still shows no sign of health after a few weeks then you may
have some weird disease in the grass. If the turf picks up and grows better
than the rest of the lawn then you have proved that the soil underneath is
not currently providing the right conditions.

Of course if you dig down and find a thin layer of soil then builders rubble
and other non-nutritious nastiness, you have also identified your problem.
In this case I guess you will have to lift or scrap the whole lawn, and then
dig (or if possible double dig) your plot and remove the rubble, add manure,
compost, fertiliser, top soil and a sprinkle of magic dust then relay or
seed your lawn.

In summary:

Unlikely to be the turf, most likely to be what is underneath.
If so, to repair you will have to lift the turf and fix the underlying soil.
You can then relay the turf, lay new turf, or seed.
Check out a small area first before ripping the whole lawn out - best to
diagnose before the major operation :-)

If the lawn is relatively small, you could fix it in stages i.e. lift an
area of turf, rework the soil and then relay the turf. This avoids the
problem of having to store the turf and keep it healthy, or the expense of
buying new turf, or the delay in waiting for the right time to seed.

HTH
Dave R

P.S. A final point; if the lawn is struggling then let the grass grow a bit
longer - a closely cut lawn may look very smart, but the grass is under
constant stress and has very little leaf area for photosynthesis. It is also
more at risk from drought, and longer grass holds dew from overnight giving
the lawn that extra bit of water.