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Old 03-06-2013, 09:28 PM posted to alt.home.lawn.garden
Bob F Bob F is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: May 2007
Posts: 762
Default Help with a lawn which won't grow, 2nd time round!

deansplit wrote:
Hello

I have a lawn which just won't thrive, here's the facts:

- Live on the sea front, it's the rear garden, 18m2, west facing.
- A new promenade was being built 4 years ago and the rubble and soil
from existing ground was removed and dumped in a mini car park
opposite me – I was doing the garden at the same time so thought it
was too good to be true not to pinch the soil and use for my lawn.
Did this, filled the area to a depth of 4" and sewed seeds. At first
the grass looked amazing, but after a few weeks started getting
patchy, very yellow/strawy and eventually areas died back. I tried
adding more seed, plenty of water, no luck.
- It got to the point where I called a gardener who (for £140) took a
look at it and said they'd add some top soil and fertilizer, more seed
and refertilize in a few weeks. They did that and it looked better,
but eventually right back to square 1, but buy this time the gardener
was uncontactable! Just can't get hold of him, typical!
- Since then, we moved out to restore our home and the grass was left
in a bad state, never cut (although only a few areas actually grew
long enough to even warrant cutting!), but I thought I'd address it
when we moved back in. That time is now and I cut it initially to
clean it up and see what it's do, but no change.
- Had a skip this w/e for removing tarmac, and with some space left, I
decided to dig up the lawn, and also removed a fair amount of soil
(thinking maybe it's contaminated?... although it served a good enough
purpose when it was used in its existing location!)
- I've dug down 2-3" and intend to buy some unscreened topsoil and
turf it, but I'm worried after a few weeks or months the same thing
will happen when the roots bed in?
- I did notice that after heavy rain, puddles appeared/it gets
waterlogged – the soil is 4" over shail, could this be a factor? I
also noticed dark (almost black soil when digging it up which I think
coincided with a pond smell – not sure if this is the soil the
gardener added of if it's bad soil? And I also noticed quite a few
(every other shovel load) of inch and half long caterpillar type
creatures but no legs ie. like a large maggot, some were brown, some
crimson red, red ones were like a cocoon!

That's all the info I can say guys, included all I know with the hope
of some guidance/advice. Any ideas???


To keep growing well, lawns require occasional food. Each time you fertilize it
(properly) and keep it properly watered, you should see new growth within a few
weeks. If you never feed it, or you let it dry out too much, it isn't going to
do as well. This does not mean to over water or over feed it.