In message , Manky Badger
writes

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

Manky Badger wrote:
Hi - I'm new here - I've tried the FAQ, but it's a bit vague on details.

I must admit I'm not much of a gardener and my lawn is a mess.

I've run the mower over it about once a month for the last ten years, but
that's all.

As I see it there's two main problems:

Firstly it's as uneven as an uneven thing. There's dips, hollows, even
almost mini-hills.
Secondly it's full of weeds and dandelions, which seem resistant to the
lawn
food/weed killer combination I got from Wyevale.

Any suggestions gratefully received.

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.


cheers for that )

Presumably I can get sand from the garden centre?





*** Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com ***
Yes but get horticultural sand not builders sand.
To get rid of the weeds use a liquid lawn weed killer - a couple of
application will see off most of them, then a hand held spray for spot
weeding will suffice.
Also one of the biggest problem with lawns is cutting the grass too
short - keep the cut a good inch or more especially if the surface is
uneven.
--
hugh
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