It is practical to maintain the lawn yourself?

Hi all,

I am considering maintain the lawn of my garden myself, but don't know where to start with.

Things I am considering:
1. Cost. I assume I have to invest in tools and it will only be sensible to invest if I plan to maintain the lawn myself in a long term.
2. Knowledge. I need to learn things like when to watering, when to fertilise, identify problems etc. Are there good books or other learning resources for this?
3. Difficulty. How hard is it? I'd say it might be easier one compared with other gardening skills.
4. Time. The size of the lawn in my front and rear garden is about 40 square meters. How much time do I need to maintain the lawn each week?

I have searched a few videos from Youtube but not very helpful. I am not planning to become a professional gardener, but want to spend some time in garden and save some money for the family.

Any suggestions are welcomed.

Thank you.

 

Morning tristanstartsgardening
If you want a top class bowling green sort of lawn it will require lots of work however maintaining a good hardwearing lawn is not difficult Why not maintain your own lawn? For me a lawn is an essential garden feature......a place to sit, play on and it sets the whole garden off so definitely worth a little effort
Can you provide a picture of the lawn you have?
Basically, a feed in spring, regular (once a week at least) mowing and not cutting too close are factors to consider Scalping lawns is prob one of the biggest mistakes folks make.
A reasonable lawn mower of course....need not be expensive but I love my lawn stripes. A mower with a rear roller gives you stripes. A lawn rake, again not expensive, to remove fallen leaves etc. A garden hose and watering can too
Your lawn is not too big....my front lawn is about 150 sqmetres and I mow twice a week and it takes me about 15 minutes. I find it easy and enjoyable. Another lawn in the back garden too.
Don’t overthink this....maintaining a lawn really is not difficult. Watering during dry spells and applying a lawn weed killer are important but, no, you don’t need special garden skills.
I’m sure others will add their advice but go for it and enjoy it
Afterthought....the smell of new mown grass is fantastic

 

Hi and welcome.

It depends on where you start.

Maintaining a lawn isn't too hard. If it's in reasonable condition

The only tools I have which are for the lawn is a flymo, a scarifier, a strimmer and a cheap garden vac, for the leaves in the autumn, (less than £40).

I give mine a dose of three in one, weed feed and mosskill, once a year and doses of iron sulphate now and again. After applying three in one, I leave it until any small patches of moss have gone black and the surface is reasonably dry before scarifying it. Then throughout the year it's just a question of mowing once or twice a week, which only takes a few minutes. There's little "edging" to do.
I did the hard work years ago. I laid block paving bricks to form the left-hand edge to the lawn and around features. My Flymo just skims over them. To the right the crazy York stone path is flush with the lawn, so one pass with a strimmer in a verticle position, provides a clean edge.
Any occasional weeds I spot, I just dig out with a chisel and close up the hole as you would a golf green pitch mark. Looking after a lawn isn't that difficult, if you have a system.

 

What condition is you lawn in at the moment @tristanstartsgardening ? its not difficult to keep a lawn tidy but if you want it pristine its probably the hardest and most time consuming plant/job in the garden.

 

Thanks for all your replies. Here is how the lawn currently looks like.

It's not in a very ideal condition.

 

Morning tristanstartsgardening
I would give your grass a granular feed....prob an all in one feed and weed. Raise the mower blades to give a lusher longer sword. After that, 3 weeks or so, apply seed to any bare areas.
Now is a good time to feed your grass.....make sure you apply fertiliser evenly when grass is dry and water it in well if it doesn’t rain within a couple of days

 

Hi @tristanstartsgardening your lawn looks fine and totally manageable. The main task is to mow it once a week, which is actually a very nice task to do. Freshly cut grass smells gorgeous, you can see the results immediately and the task forces you out in the garden even when you feel lazy.

Being out there, you'll notice and appreciate the other parts of the garden as well.

And the good news is, if it's raining all weekend, you don't have to cut the grass. Just leave it.

Getting to @Doghouse Riley level of grass would take a lot more effort, but a healthy, good looking lawn is not not hard work once the basic bits (soil underneath, perennial weeds) are sorted out. Your starting point looks fine

Buy a mower, a strimmer, a rake and a garden fork, a box of fertiliser or feed and weed and that's all. You can get the lot for less than a £100 in Argos for a reasonable (and that's all you need) quality. If you want to upgrade the quality, that's what Christmas and birthdays are for... for once, you'll have a specific wish


Let us know how you decide to go forwards, good luck and have fun!

 

It depends on your finances. Looking at the photos, there's quite a bit of work needed and even then, not much will happen until the weather improves. Given the size, it might be worth considering re-turfing it. But this will need also some preparation and some after-care.

 

Some good advice I think there

Many years ago I craved a super duper high class lawn. It was great for a couple of years until the extent of maintenance ...work, cost.....hit me. Began to bore me
I realised I neither wanted a top quality lawn nor the dedication it required so I dug over the lawn and replaced with a general purpose seed mixture.

I still have a good lawn, folks remark about it, seem to admire it, but it is far less work, looks better (higher cut means a lusher looking award) and is harder wearing to sit, walk or play on.

Yes, I have “equipment” to help maintain the lawn....electric scarifier/raker for example....and I top dress it annually. A twice weekly mow, a spring feed and a couple of liquid feeds during the summer are enough to give me something I am happy with.

 

The more you mow, the better.
My golf club greens are testimony to that.
Grass here grows all year round. They cut the greens at least once a week.
They also get the occasional "iron."



I don't go that far!

When our heaad greenkeeper "does stuff" to our greens I then follow suit with my lawn.

It's not "fine grass," but there's no rye grass in it. It doesn't get walked on that much, but with no kids at home or pets, it gets little wear.
What does happen, is that the right edge tends to spread a bit. So with my strimmer, I can now and again cut a strip a couple of inches wide off it. As the roots for this strip of grass are just compacted against the path, it stays alive so bits of it can be used to patch any small holes caused by squirrels or whatever.

My three year-old Flymo is the latest in a number I've had. It has a big fan at the back, as big as the blade, which ensures all the clippings end up in the grass box.

 

I looked into having our lawn looked after by one of the franchised lawn maintenance companies and the cost was more than I was prepared to pay (think it was around £70 a month five or so years ago). Having dogs, our lawn will never be perfect but a twice yearly feed, regular mowing and scarify twice a year keeps it looking good. Having said that, last year it was brown and crispy for most of the summer.