Dead lawn - Restart?

After some advice, I made the effort to "scarify" my lawn (didn't know what that meant until about 2 weeks ago!) although I'm not sure if it's helped. There was so much compacted dead long grass (especially up the side of the fences on the right) that it wrapped itself round the Black & Decker lawnraker I had bought and had to keep cutting it free. In the end I had to use the rake until all the grass was short enough to use it again.



In the photos, this is what's left! As you should be able to see, there's a lot of patches of soil.

I was going to use a lawn seen spreader with Evergreen Complete 4-in-1 lawn but would like to know if I will be wasting my time using on the garden's current condition? I would like the lawn to go from fence to fence for now.

Thank you.

 

I think you should start with recovering the lawn you have before re-seeding or turfing the patches, you will then find out how much of the current lawn is viable. Your lawn may look very brown, even dead at the moment but grass is very tough and recovers from what looks like drought conditions very well.

If the lawn is weed free then I would give the lawn a good soaking before putting down a feed. Granular treatments should be used when rain is imminent or you are prepared to keep it watered. Liquid treatments must be used on a dry lawn and watered a few days later if it hasn't rained. If you use an all-in-one treatment......weed, feed and moss killer the same applies. Don't be tempted to use more than the instructions state as you could burn your lawn.

 

Thanks Sheal, very much appreciated.

I fear that the lawn is fairly riddled with different kinds of weeds. In fact, if you look to the left of the clothes airer you should be able to make out quite a large lighter patch. I think it's the same stuff as Trigger posted in a recent thread that you replied to. I've also got (had?) dandelions and those ones that look like cabbage leaves.

If I was to go around the garden, loosen up the soil with a fork, spread the 4-in-1, would that be good enough to kill the weeds and any moss? When I get home each evening, I'd give it a soaking if it hasn't rained. My fear is that if I leave those bare patches alone, wouldn't weeds quickly make use of them?

Thanks again.

 

It sounds like you need to use an all-in-one treatment unless you'd prefer to go through the stages separately.

Your plan sounds like the right way to go but once you've watered the weed and feed in leave it a few days before you water again, it needs time to work and watering to often will flush the chemicals through not allowing them to do their job.

Weed seeds can lay dormant for years in soil before they germinate. By leaving the patches bare for the time being you will allow any to germinate and grow and with the lack of grass you could use a systemic weed killer to kill them off permanently. If you seed those places now and weeds grow you won't be able to use a killer because of the young new grass. You would have to dig them out. Obviously it's your choice, but if you decide to seed the patches now, leave it until after you've used the lawn treatment. If you accidently get the lawn treatment on the new grass it's likely to kill it or make it outgrow it's strength.

 

Okay thanks again, that's great.
I think I now have a better understanding of how things work and what's involved.
The weather's starting to become miserable and it's off to work I go for this week, so hopefully we'll see what lies beneath before the next weekend starts where I can start making progress.
Thanks.