Lawn won't dry out

needahol

Hi

I wonder if anyone can offer advice.

I had a new lawn laid earlier this year, it looked great and I was really pleased with it. The company who laid it said it would need plenty of watering but I didn't need to water it as we suffered a couple of torrential downpours in the few days following.

The trouble now is that it has never dried out! Sometimes it's not as wet as other times but it is never truly dry. This makes mowing it difficult.

Can anyone help with a reason/solution?

Thanks

SailorSam

What was it like before with the old lawn, the same ?
I think i'd start by forking it, to get some drainage holes ????? Or is that a bad idea on new lawns ?

tanith

When you say it doesn't dry out, do you mean the grass is wet or its wet underfoot so that its squelchy? if its got very long you might need to strim it before mowing as it has a hard job drying when the grass is very long

needahol

Thanks, the grass itself isn't wet but it's wet underfoot - when we walk on it, it leaves footprints. It's not too long as we have been cutting it (I know you probably shouldn't) but, because of the wetness underfoot, it doesn't cut great.

There was no old lawn, it's a new house

Thanks

staffie1

Do you have heavy, clay soil?

tanith

I have a patch that is always wet on my lawn ( I think a stream used to run there ) anyway its always a bit mushy and even when cut I still leave footprints in the grass... I just ignore the wetness and cut it along with the rest it seems to be ok in the heighth of Summer ..

ukbill69

Right get a folk and stab everywhere, maybe add all way round some sharp sand this will help with drainage.

Lube

You dont have enough drainage then

Aerate the lawn with a fork and apply lawn sand this may help but the underlining issue may be you may have clay soil or its just simply been too wet

needahol

Thanks to all contributors. Will try stabbing it and get some sand as suggested. I believe the lawn was laid on clay soil and we had non-stop rain for 3 days after it was laid. I thought that was a good thing at the time but maybe it was too much!

Thanks again

gordikin

If you have clay soil it may be worthwhile purchasing a lawn aerator which will remove 'soil worms' and you can brush the sand into the holes left. You're probably going to have to do this annually for a few years to improve the soil and therefore the lawn significantly.