Patchy, uneven lawn

heatherw_01

What is the best and chepest if possible way to fix my lawn?

It is very patch and extremely uneven lawn. Is the best way to re-turf it or is there an alternative?

Could I pour soil over the holes and add some seed?

viktory

This post won't be a lot of help, but I just had to say that I have exactly the same problem. I suppose I could tell you what we have done to try to solve the problem (although it hasn't) and at least you can save some time!

We tried sieving large areas of earth, removing all stones, rocks and weeds before mixing it the remaining erath thoroughly with compost and sand before finally adding good quality seeds. These were then watered in well, according to the instructions on the seed packet. Failed miserably! The lawn (and I use that work advisedly!) is atrocious. Patchy, lumpy and mostly weeds.

We then tried using weed killer/lawn feed stuff. It is supposed to kill the weeds and make the grass greener than that at Lords cricket ground. That didn't work either. I think our only option is to relay some new turf.

Hope you find a solution and if you do, please let me know!

Thanks, Vicky :cool:

loobs40

sometimes you just have to give in. We moved to a house with a 'lawn', mostly consisting of weeds. We painstakingly tried the weedkiller, new seed , feeding to no avail.

IN the end we threw in the towel, got in a landscaper to relay the lawn (and patio) . Best money I've spent in ages. Got a lovely green lawn, which I feed and weed, and water regularly and fill in weak patches with seed which works really well

economiser

You don't say what type of ground it is, clay, sandy or whatever. It may well be that the ground is compacted or poorly drained. If this is the case then turfing or seeding is unlikely to be successful without proper preparation of the ground. I don't think there is a cheap solution. You could try local treatment by breaking up the ground in the bare patches and then reseeding - its worth a try.

Dunkyboy_2

We had a similar problem when we moved house, and we decided to take up all the old turf, (spade and wheel-barrow) and used it to rebuild a hedge that was looking rough, then we hired a rotivator and dug it up, levelled it up, and reseeded it.
The lawn is about 25m x 30m and it was very hard work, but well worth it.
If i did it again then, i would of hired one of those turf strippers you see on Groundforce, this would save loads of time and effort, hire a mini skip to get rid of turf, or even put a notice in the local rag to see if some one wants it (you'd be surprised).
Hope this helps you decide

If your neighbour has a nice lawn/garden try asking them about it, chances are they would be only to happy to advise you.

alison6692

We went to Beaulieu Motor Museum and my boyfriend was so impressed by the lawns there,he actually asked the gardener how he got such lovely lawns!! I was slightly embarassed - but anyway. This old chap was slightly disgruntled as they had been using something with Nitrogen in it - which seemingly is new thing that this old chap wasn't to keen on. My boyfriend has been using it and it seems to have helped, although two random brown patches have appeared from nowhere.

He did returf two bits which just wouldn't grow and its the best thing he could have done - He tried and tried with seed but he had to give in, in the end returfed the two smaller areas.

Also he waters his grass every evening!!

Aww - He is like my own personal Alan Titchmarsh!

Becles

I spent years trying to mend an inherited patchy uneven lawn full of weeds. Must have spent a fortune on seed, soil treatments and weed killers.

Last year my parents didn't know what to get me for my birthday, so I asked for turf! In the late summer we dug out all the old turg and weeds. Gave the garden a good dig over, sieving out all the stones and watered in some growmore. We laid the new turf and I kept the boys and dogs off it as much as I could so it could settle in over the winter.

This year it looks smashing. It's grown in really well and I'm pleased with it. I wish I'd re-turfed years ago instead of trying to rescue the old lawn.

mekondelta

Sorry to hijack this thread slightly, but we have a huge (coniferous) tree about 25ft high in our garden and despite watering it almost every day is almost totally dry with sandy patches. Can the tree be sucking up all the water which we're trying to give our lawn to make it grow using Evergreen?

Jacster_2

mekondelta wrote:

Sorry to hijack this thread slightly, but we have a huge (coniferous) tree about 25ft high in our garden and despite watering it almost every day is almost totally dry with sandy patches. Can the tree be sucking up all the water which we're trying to give our lawn to make it grow using Evergreen?

Grass underneath trees never does well. It always comes second in the fight for water and nutrients. The drip from the leaves doesn't help it much either. Might be an idea to put gravel underneath or something similar if the poor lawn there really bothers you?

mekondelta

Jacster wrote:

Grass underneath trees never does well. It always comes second in the fight for water and nutrients. The drip from the leaves doesn't help it much either. Might be an idea to put gravel underneath or something similar if the poor lawn there really bothers you?

It's not under the tree as such. The grass is upto 10 metres away from the outermost edge of the branches/leaves. The whole garden just gets bone dry.
I love the tree but am trying to grow vegetables and flowers so need some moisture in there. My water bill is going to go thru the roof if I have to keep watering....

Jacster_2

mekondelta wrote:

It's not under the tree as such. The grass is upto 10 metres away from the outermost edge of the branches/leaves. The whole garden just gets bone dry.
I love the tree but am trying to grow vegetables and flowers so need some moisture in there. My water bill is going to go thru the roof if I have to keep watering....

Sounds like you have really sandy soil that doesn't hold water well. There is a soil testing kit on the freebies board. Might be worth getting your hands on that? I've never had sandy soil so can't really help, I'm afraid. I think the soil testing kit has instructions on what to do when you find out what type of soil you have - good luck.