I need to repair my lawn which has a burnt crater in the middle of it from a bonfire and the rest has been damaged with washed out paint trays being thrown across it etc.
I was thinking about rotorvating it and then laying turf but my dad has told me it will be a lot cheaper (and easier!?) to just seed it on top of the existing grass. He has suggested raking it thoroughly to remove the dead grass and weeds and then sprinkling grass seed around and re-raking it into the ground. He also suggested a very light covering of sand to keep the birds off. Just wondering if any of you can shed any light on this as to whether it might work or what else i should do. I have thought it is worth a shot and if nothing happens within a few weeks i can always resort to the turf?

nmorgan wrote in
s.com:

I need to repair my lawn which has a burnt crater in the middle of it
from a bonfire and the rest has been damaged with washed out paint
trays being thrown across it etc.
I was thinking about rotorvating it and then laying turf but my dad has
told me it will be a lot cheaper (and easier!?) to just seed it on top
of the existing grass. He has suggested raking it thoroughly to remove
the dead grass and weeds and then sprinkling grass seed around and
re-raking it into the ground. He also suggested a very light covering
of sand to keep the birds off. Just wondering if any of you can shed
any light on this as to whether it might work or what else i should do.
I have thought it is worth a shot and if nothing happens within a few
weeks i can always resort to the turf?

Depends how high your standards are! If you want a perfectly flat, even
lawn, and your existing one actually has holes in, I suspect you need to
re-do it from scratch.

I keep rabbits on one of my lawns. This means I get scraped bits and bits
that have been burnt off with too much rabbit wee.

I patch the affected areas with a little soil to make it up more or less to
the level of the rest (if scraped) and stick a bit of grass seed on the
top. Water for a couple of weeks, and you soon don't notice the
difference.

This is a good time of year to do it too, though you will need to water
well if you are in one of the dry parts of the UK.

But I am not aiming for a bowling green finish. My lawn is green and more
or less flat, and that's all I ask of it.

Victoria

On Thu, 25 Sep 2003 13:01:40 +0100, Victoria Clare wrote:

nmorgan wrote in
s.com:

I need to repair my lawn which has a burnt crater in the middle of it
from a bonfire and the rest has been damaged with washed out paint
trays being thrown across it etc.
I was thinking about rotorvating it and then laying turf but my dad has
told me it will be a lot cheaper (and easier!?) to just seed it on top
of the existing grass. He has suggested raking it thoroughly to remove
the dead grass and weeds and then sprinkling grass seed around and
re-raking it into the ground. He also suggested a very light covering
of sand to keep the birds off. Just wondering if any of you can shed
any light on this as to whether it might work or what else i should do.
I have thought it is worth a shot and if nothing happens within a few
weeks i can always resort to the turf?

Depends how high your standards are! If you want a perfectly flat, even
lawn, and your existing one actually has holes in, I suspect you need to
re-do it from scratch
....snip....
This is a good time of year to do it too, though you will need to water
well if you are in one of the dry parts of the UK.
...snip...

Right, I agree. If you just want a nice lawn, not a bowling green, I think
re-seeding would be enough, but it depends what you want your lawn to look
like. If it's large, then hire/borrow a scarifier/de-thatcher (or whatever
they're called) to do the removing of the weeds etc. As your dad said, I'd
recommend a layer of either sand or fine soil/peat to keep the seeds out of
sight from the beady-eyed birds. As long as they can't see too much seed
they'll mostly leave it alone. A thin layer of something also helps you see
when it's drying out, so you can give it a watering, that's very important.

I'm doing my lawn tomorrow, as it happens.

--
Tim.

If the human brain were simple enough that we could understand it, we would
be so simple that we couldn't.

"Tim Challenger" "timothy(dot)challenger(at)apk(dot)at" wrote in message
s.com...
On Thu, 25 Sep 2003 13:01:40 +0100, Victoria Clare wrote:

nmorgan wrote in
s.com:

I need to repair my lawn which has a burnt crater in the middle of it
from a bonfire and the rest has been damaged with washed out paint
trays being thrown across it etc.
I was thinking about rotorvating it and then laying turf but my dad has
told me it will be a lot cheaper (and easier!?) to just seed it on top
of the existing grass. He has suggested raking it thoroughly to remove
the dead grass and weeds and then sprinkling grass seed around and
re-raking it into the ground. He also suggested a very light covering
of sand to keep the birds off. Just wondering if any of you can shed
any light on this as to whether it might work or what else i should do.
I have thought it is worth a shot and if nothing happens within a few
weeks i can always resort to the turf?

Depends how high your standards are! If you want a perfectly flat, even
lawn, and your existing one actually has holes in, I suspect you need to
re-do it from scratch
....snip....
This is a good time of year to do it too, though you will need to water
well if you are in one of the dry parts of the UK.
...snip...

Right, I agree. If you just want a nice lawn, not a bowling green, I think
re-seeding would be enough, but it depends what you want your lawn to look
like. If it's large, then hire/borrow a scarifier/de-thatcher (or whatever
they're called) to do the removing of the weeds etc. As your dad said,
I'd
recommend a layer of either sand or fine soil/peat to keep the seeds out
of
sight from the beady-eyed birds. As long as they can't see too much seed
they'll mostly leave it alone. A thin layer of something also helps you
see
when it's drying out, so you can give it a watering, that's very
important.

I'm doing my lawn tomorrow, as it happens.

--
Tim.

If the human brain were simple enough that we could understand it, we
would
be so simple that we couldn't.

Actually the experts recomend mixing lawn seed with some fine soil and a
little water and allowing it to germinate for exactly 3 days .........then
spread it over bare patches etc ..........this means no seed for birds to
pinch
you can also cover the area with polythene for 2 to 3 weeks to keep it moist
and warm

On Thu, 25 Sep 2003 18:46:02 +0000 (UTC), bnd777 wrote:


"Tim Challenger" "timothy(dot)challenger(at)apk(dot)at" wrote in message
s.com...
On Thu, 25 Sep 2003 13:01:40 +0100, Victoria Clare wrote:

nmorgan wrote in
s.com:

I need to repair my lawn which has a burnt crater in the middle of it
from a bonfire and the rest has been damaged with washed out paint
trays being thrown across it etc.
I was thinking about rotorvating it and then laying turf but my dad has
told me it will be a lot cheaper (and easier!?) to just seed it on top
of the existing grass. He has suggested raking it thoroughly to remove
the dead grass and weeds and then sprinkling grass seed around and
re-raking it into the ground. He also suggested a very light covering
of sand to keep the birds off. Just wondering if any of you can shed
any light on this as to whether it might work or what else i should do.
I have thought it is worth a shot and if nothing happens within a few
weeks i can always resort to the turf?

Depends how high your standards are! If you want a perfectly flat, even
lawn, and your existing one actually has holes in, I suspect you need to
re-do it from scratch
....snip....
This is a good time of year to do it too, though you will need to water
well if you are in one of the dry parts of the UK.
...snip...

Right, I agree. If you just want a nice lawn, not a bowling green, I think
re-seeding would be enough, but it depends what you want your lawn to look
like. If it's large, then hire/borrow a scarifier/de-thatcher (or whatever
they're called) to do the removing of the weeds etc. As your dad said,
I'd
recommend a layer of either sand or fine soil/peat to keep the seeds out
of
sight from the beady-eyed birds. As long as they can't see too much seed
they'll mostly leave it alone. A thin layer of something also helps you
see
when it's drying out, so you can give it a watering, that's very
important.

I'm doing my lawn tomorrow, as it happens.

--
Tim.

If the human brain were simple enough that we could understand it, we
would
be so simple that we couldn't.

Actually the experts recomend mixing lawn seed with some fine soil and a
little water and allowing it to germinate for exactly 3 days .........then
spread it over bare patches etc ..........this means no seed for birds to
pinch
you can also cover the area with polythene for 2 to 3 weeks to keep it moist
and warm

I hadn't heard of that one. I had thought of it but never tried it.
I suppose you let it dry out briefly just before you spred it out,
otherwise it'll clump up? Or would it work well enough if you just
sprinkled it by hand and then maybe raked it in carefully?
--
Tim.

If the human brain were simple enough that we could understand it, we would
be so simple that we couldn't.