On 10/10/07 22:58, in article ,
"Kroma" wrote:

The house is about 20 years old and I believe that the first owner had lawn
here. The second owner replaced it with tiny stones (which seemed to attract
the local cats). We got rid of the stones, dug over the underlying soil,
added more soil and finally seeded it.

I don't think that drainage is a problem and it shouldn't be particularly
compacted - in fact when mowing, the soil felt rather spongy.

Ummm. I'm no lawn expert but spongy usually means wet. Could something be
preventing drainage in that area? Not many plants - including normal lawn
grass - like to have their roots permanently damp. That's why worms in a
lawn are so important and why golfers have spikes on their shoes etc. etc.
All help to aerate and drain the soil under the grass.

I do have some soluble lawn feed - would it possibly help or is the lawn
likely to be too young for this?

The generally received wisdom is not to feed a sick plant. To revert to the
old days "the answer lies in the soil" - I'd suggest digging up that
particular area of lawn and seeing what is underneath it and dealing with
that first before going into expensive treatments which might do more harm
than good. IF you have a boggy area that won't drain well, you can make a
bog garden, for example. But have you asked any neighbours to either side
of your area if they have a similar problem? It may go with the territory.
--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove weeds from address)
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'