Patchy & Bumpy Grass!

We've just bought our first house, but the lawn is horrible!

I've just cut it:



But as you can see, it's quite patchy:




And bumpy:






What would your advice be to level it out and reduce the patchiness?

Thank you,
Daniel

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I'm no expert but If it was me, I'd feed it. Level it over with topsoil and mix lots of grass seed in with it. Try not to cover the grass completely. Then water it daily for 2/3 weeks. Jobs a good un.

 

Hello. I was about to start a new thread about just this sort of problem...I was looking for advice on lawn care...hope you dont mind me jumping in ? Hopefully both a questions will be answered.

Our lawn is also a little bumpy..patchy...and sort of mis-coloured ...the grass is light and has a sort of hay look to it...sorry for the poor description. I have just levelled it out so its not too bad in that respect...I cut out some turf..took some soil away from under it..and then layed it back down..worked great....its ten times better than it was before.
All I want to do now is bring it to life...make it look healthy and GREEN would be nice ..as opposed to faded yellow.
I gave it a light dusting of seed but what effect that will have I dont know...should I throw a load more seed down ?

What can I do to help it ...what care does it need ? Is there something I can feed it with ?
All advice and tips welcome.
Thank you

 

Right. I'll see if I can kill two birds with one stone here.

Henry......It's going to be difficult to level the bumps without putting a roller over it which won't help the lawn in the long term. Lawns tend to compact over time so it will need aerating. If you have the patience, using a garden fork, work your way over the lawn pushing the fork in every 1ft or so and give it a wiggle. This will allow the roots to breath, grass roots only grow down to about four inches so that will give you an idea. Then fill the patches with grass seed and cover with a thin-ish layer of compost or topsoil if your soil is sandy. In fact with the larger patches you have Henry, this would be best even if you have clay soil. On smaller patches of clay soil it is sometimes better to use sand which also helps to open up the clay. This will also give you the opportunity to level out some of the bumps with the soil/compost. When the seed is down make sure that it is watered every day unless it rains of course and at this time of year you would expect to keep the new grass watered throughout the summer months until it has established.

When the new grass is at cutting length, set your mower to a higher cut to take off the top growth so that it doesn't rip the young grass out and please don't use a strimmer, that will pretty much destroy the grass. Grass is like any other plant, when it's cut it produces side shoots which will fill out in time. It's best not to use lawn feed or weedkiller in it's first season as it could weaken the new grass.

Supernube......you can follow the above but it sounds as if your lawn needs feeding first. Open up the lawn as above and then use a lawn feed, you can buy this in most diy or garden centres. I wouldn't doing anything with your patches for the time being if you intend to feed. Give it six weeks after feeding and then re-seed the patches.