Bald patches - A problem or not?

Towards the end of last summer (late August) we took the plunge and gave our back garden a make over (we have owned the property for just over 12 months it's having a total renovation).

The garden was basically a mud patch to start, or so we thought. The path up the middle (see pics below) was actually only an inch deep in soil, the rest was all building rubble and there was an actual concrete path underneath!

Before:





After:







I also found that the garden was 80% concrete under around 1.5ft of soil and building rubble. I took the decision to lift all the soil, break up all the concrete and remove it. A long back breaking week! After removing the concrete (as well as a toilet seat, tile fire surround and other such mind boggling treasures) I dug over the whole garden to at least a depth of 2.5ft. This was all then raked, dug over again, then raked again until all the ground was level.

The turf was then laid. Now it wasn't the cheapest turf money could buy, but it wasn't exactly the best. As you can see from the 'After' pictures, it all looked very luscious and green. Now Autumn and Winter have passed (almost) it's looking rather bald in places (see pic below). I was wondering if I need to address this now in some way or will it all rectify itself when the grass starts to grow again?

 

Is that big tree a willow behaviour?

This and the shade will be the problem, resow the bare patches with some grass that likes the shade, and you may have to invest in a sprinkler-the tree will be sucking the moisture out of the ground.

I had the same issue around my oak trees, but I gave up on the lawn and installed some raised beds with woodland planting instead, but I still have to give the area a good soak if it hasn't rained.

I won't be so drastic as to advise you get rid of such a gorgeous tree, but you might have to in order to have a good lawn in the long term.


Good luck.

 

Yes, it is a willow tree. It was regularly watered with a sprinkler until it stopped growing. It's certainly not dry. But over the winter months I've been raking out a lot of dead grass :(

 

Willows are great, but they are extremely thirsty trees. In the wild you will usually find them along river banks. My guess is the willow is nicking all the water and nutrients from the surrounding ground.

Maybe choose grass seed that is suited to woodland, ie that tolerates the shade cast by trees, and the nutrient and water demands of nearby trees. I found this:

http://www.lawn-seed.co.uk/grassseed3.htm