"Mike Lyle" wrote in message
ups.com...


Leaving aside Sue's radical approach -- which is only good if you're a
seriously keen gardener -- the first thing to do is to grit your
dentures and start cutting the grass more often. Sorry about that. Once
a week is the minimum, really: some real lawnloons do it every blasted
_day_. Leaving the grass uncut encourages it to grow up, not out, so
making room for weeds to flourish.

The weed and feed stuff will work in the end, but you have to follow
the instructions exactly, and do it more than once.

Cure bumps by slicing them off, digging a bit of soil out, and treading
the grassy slice back on. Water till it's fixed itself. Hollows are
harder: brush in half an inch (no more) of sand or compost, or even
some of the soil from the bumps. When the grass has grown through
enough to look as though you've never done anything, do it again --
ideally you do this only once a year, but twice should be OK. For
quicker results, skim the turf off the hollow, fill it up with soil and
proceed as for bumps.

No need to worry if your lawn isn't perfectly flat, though, unless you
want to play clock golf. Nothing wrong with a few weeds, either, if you
ask me; in fact, daisies are essential, and small white clover looks
better in a dry spell than brown grass.

--
Mike.


I would have thought that after 10 years of mowing once a month, and no
feeding there would only be coarse grasses left in it. Would it not be less
work in the long run to start again? A bit of hard work getting a nice flat
seed bed now, and by next year there would be a decent lawn (or turf, of
course, if the budget runs to it). But this is only a question, not a
suggestion.

Mind you, if, in the long run, you don't want to mow every week, or more
often, I'd seriously think about growing paving slabs.

--
Lyndon