How to improve lawns

Hi all,

I'm trying to improve my mums front and back lawns but know little about lawns. I have researched but finding that there are so many ways that I'm getting confused.

The front lawn is patchy and had some but not a lot of weeds , so i used some Miracle Gro 4 in 1, it has helped. I'm thinking i now need to scarify it and then reseed it. Does that sound like the correct way? Do i need to cut the grass before I scarify it? Is this time of year OK to do it?

The back lawn is full of dandelion's and other weeds. Would it be correct to do the same as above, Miracle Gro, scarify and reseed?

Any advise would be appreciated.

 

The front lawn looks OK no need to scarify unless you have a lot of moss. Weed killer spray first the back lawn to kill weeds then decide on your suggestion. Depends what you use to scarify if you go down that road as you could loose a lot of grass as well as weeds and moss speaking from experience plus you have to spend hours raking up everything and then disposing of it all. I am sure you will receive more better suggestions.

 

Hi Waterbut, yes there is a lot of moss in the front and a lot of thatch. I was going to get an electric scarifier as tried by hand and its very hard. Appreciate your advice

 

What I did when I scarified my lawn was to rake up everything into several piles doing it a bit at a time. Then into a lot of thin plastic bags followed by a couple of trips to the recycling centre unless you can recycle the stuff elsewhere. Thin plastic bags because you have to rip them open to dispose of the green waste at the RC. as you have tied the top to stop spillage in the car. Pulling out a knife to cut open a rubble bag would not look good.

 

Not sure where you are @Wozzeruk but most lawns will be suffering in this heat wave so prepare to have brown grass soon.

I believe scarification is best done around September. The dandelions ideally need pulling out by the root as they will just grow back otherwise.

Loads of advice and videos online, but I’m sure some experience on here too.

 

I think the back lawn looks fine. She's got a bird table so she clearly wants to attract wildlife. A few lawn weeds will be better for that than a sterile expanse of green.

 

Personally I find any lawn is vastly improved by the addition of large flower beds or by a significant increase in size of existing beds. Note these are noticeable by their absence here.
You will require a spade, a fork, couple of tons of manure and a couple of weekends in the autumn and another couple in spring to plant up. Then you will cease to worry about the lawn as there will be less lawn and weeding, pruning, mulching and dead heading your new flower beds will distract you from the state of the lawn which will grow longer and greener and generally look better.

 

Hi AuntyRach, I'm in the South, Portsmouth. There is literally hundreds of dandelions in the back. I've been cutting the grass previously and looks good for about a week but then they regrow. There is some weed that grass. I will take your advice and leave the scarification until September. The front with the bird table has looked patchy for a long time.

 

Hi Escarpment, the picture with the bird table is the front and mostly weed free but has looked patchy for a long time. Just want to get it looking slightly better.

 

Thanks NigelJ, its my elderly mum's house. Would love to do what you.suggested but just don't have the time. Mum has dementia and likes the lawns to look nice. Her husband used to do it but sadly he passed away and we try and maintain them but have no clue.

 

Understood and I'm sorry to hear about your mum's dementia and can understand why you want to keep it as she likes.

 

If the finances allow, could you just hire a local gardener to come in regularly?

 

As previously said, to be honest I don't think you should worry too much about it until the Autumn when we will (hopefully) get some wetter weather.

I appreciate that you want to keep it nice for your Mum, but with the weather we are having all the lawns are basically being baked dry.
Using a sprinkler to keep it watered isn't environmentally friendly, and I suspect a hosepipe ban will be coming very soon, if it isn't already in place in your Mum's area.

As for the dandelions you could look at trying something like Resolva lawn weedkiller, but that needs moist soil to work.

I'm assuming you don't live nearby which of course makes it more difficult when it comes to monitoring the dandelions, so
@Escarpment 's suggestion of a visiting gardener might be worth considering, if your Mum is able to deal with someone visiting to do the garden.

 

Well you are doing a lovely thing by trying to keep the garden lawn looking good for your Mum @Wozzeruk.

I think lawn maintenance is very time consuming and sometimes we just need work with what we’ve got and a trim and neat edges will forgive the weeds. Maybe a compromise would be to scratch any bare patches and scatter some new seed - but do that when some rain due. There was a good section on how to do that on Beechgrove last week (on iPlayer).

 

If you bring in a lawn care company be warned a lot of them do not cut the grass.