Problems after overseeding

Did you dress it with Sharp Sand?

 

I don't have a proper aerator so I got a so called 'lawn specialist' to come round to do it for me. It's one of those franchise lawn companies. I wasn't in when he did it but I don't think he used sharp sand. I've contacted him about it and it turns out he used solid tine not hollow tine aeration. He's been looking after my lawn for the past 12 months but he doesn't seem interested in helping me much other than turning up for 10 minutes and putting chemicals on my lawn and it looks worse now than it did this time last year. I've requested a soil test but again it seems to fall on deaf ears. He said last year he would reseed it for me but after asking several times I just ended up having to do it myself and I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm not happy at all with him and I'm in the process of looking for someone else. He never turns up when he agrees to and whenever I've tried to contact him it takes him weeks before he returns my messages. It's as if he's only interested in turning up for an easy £15 but doesn't actually want to do any real work. I originally hired him to sort out some bare patches in my lawn which needed reseeding but he put me on a annual lawn care programme but failed to address the problems which I originally hired him to sort out. I just feel like I'm wasting my money. He turned up last week to put liquid iron on my lawn and left me a note saying that my lawn was fine and not to cut it anymore and he'd see me next spring. It isn't fine at all. In fact it looks worse than it did before and it seems to be more waterlogged now than it ever was. I sent him a message yesterday with photos of my lawn and asked if he could explain the thinning out but he never bothers to get back to me so I think it's time I got shut of him.

On top if that he's added £15 to my bill carried over from a previous balance but I have no idea what for as I've paid him up to date. This isn't the first time he's tried to charge me for services which I've already paid for and last year he quoted me £20 to scarify my back lawn and when he turned up he wanted £25. When I questioned it he said it was because his prices had gone up despite the fact that I'd been quoted £20. I've been reluctant to fall out with him because I don't want to come home to find my lawn poisoned. I know that might sound paranoid but it happened to a neighbour of ours who refused to pay someone for a poor returfing job and a few weeks later her lawn had all turned brown.

 

This so-called gardener of yours clearly doesn't know what he is doing Wizard! Excuse me if I'm being bold but I think it's about time you parted company with him! If this man had used sand on your lawn you would have seen it and he obviously hasn't done what you asked him too either.

I wouldn't do anything else to the lawn until next spring, it must have time to recover from the damage already done. At this time of year it's not growing anyway so the lawn won't recover. Come next spring when it starts to grow again is the time to work on it. You will probably find that the lawn will start to fill out then. Any chemicals that have been used now will only make it's situation worse. For the time being it is probably best to try and stay off it as much as possible, that will help to stop compaction.

 

It is sad that you've had that experience, but unfortunately bad service seems to be endemic in the lawn care industry, especially amongst the big companies who are just working the numbers.

Don't be afraid to sack someone for bad work. I never heard of a lawn care operative going back to poison a lawn. Turfers are different as they just do one-off jobs, but even so I doubt is was them. Maybe it just wasn't watered ... that'll make it go brown very quickly!

 

20£ for lawn scarification ???
What size is it ?

 

Approximately 30ft x 20ft and my front lawn is about 18ft x 8ft. It took him about 20 mins to do the lot and he also said as part of the service he'd take the rubbish away with him but instead, he filled my green bin with moss. Not that I minded but he did say he'd dispose of the moss himself which I didn't think meant collecting it up and dumping it in MY bin. I take it by dispose of he meant as opposed to just leaving on the lawn for me to gather up. After he finished he tried to charge me £25 when he'd already quoted me £20.

I sent him an email on Tuesday asking him what this extra £15 is on my account which I don't owe and whether he's able to explain why my lawn is so thin yet he seems to think it's fine. I took photos and asked if he could get back to me and 3 days later he has neither replied to my email nor returned my text messages.

No doubt he'll turn up in a few months wanting another tenner for another 5 minutes work.

Trouble is I've looked online and all these lawn care companies seem to be these franchises which I'm now reluctant to use as it makes me wonder exactly how qualified you have to be to run one. He told me he used to be head groundsman as our local cricket club so thought he'd be the ideal bloke to help me but so far he's only made my lawn look worse than it did before. He told me that these things take time but after a year I would have hoped to at least see some improvement rather than it looking like a boggy mess.

 

You'd be better off learning how to look after your lawn yourself. That way you won't be ripped off and messed about.

 

You have got about 90m2 of lawn
It took him 20m to scarify and overseed.
I wouldn't trust him at all..
I can't be done well in that time.
I'd say it would take me 2-3h to do it

You have to mow, scarify, pick up moss, scarify again, pick up and mow
That's how I would do it

Then it's a fertilizer and seeding..

Dump that guy Id say. I'm sure you can do it better yourself.

Have a look at the link below
This is a lawn before and after scarification, overseed, fertilizer. ( 3 months after )

http://www.tidygardens.eu/garden-maintenance-services/lawn-maintenance-after-scarification/

 

He didn't overseed it. I ended up doing that part myself despite him saying he would he didn't bother. I asked him several times if he could because I had no idea how to do it properly. Not knowing the correct proceedure I bought some Verve family lawn seed from B&Q and some topsoil and mixed it together in a bucket. I raked the lawn and threw some of the seed down then raked over the soil/seed mixture and used the back of the rake to work it over the lawn.like you do when you top dress. After a week or so it germinated fine and I even managed to get 6 weeks worth of mowing out of it before the rain came. Following the rain it all started to thin out and every cut I made after that it just got more and more bare. My guess is that for some reason it's not rooted and the. combination of rain and mowing had pulled/washed it all out or maybe it's just died back leaving me with these patches of bare clumpy topsoil.

 

Another update...

Just come to do my first cut of the year. Lawn is still patchy with clumps of soggy soil but I couldn't help notice how lumpy it's gone under foot. It feels like the soil has been pushed up. I'm thinking earthworms/nightcrawlers as I went out one night and when my security light came on I saw what must have been 200 worms going in and out of the soil in one area but the problem I see is that the clumps are too wet to be brushed off. It's like walking on wet lumpy earth and some areas appear to have sunk. I'm wondering if this may have been caused partially by the worms but also by inadequate aerating by using a solid tine aerator which may have pulled the earth up into small mounds. I've trampled down the clumps and bumps but it's left a muddy mess on the surface which I don't think will grow back without seeding. I'm prepared to do another aeration when the ground isn't so wet, this time with a hollow core aerator but what can I do about the lumpy uneven soil? I've thought about rolling it. I realise this might compact the soil but I can't think of what to do in the mean time to get the surface even again. I didn't really want to throw more topsoil and seed down as thus might make matters worse.

 

That was a really bad idea ... never squash down lumps (especially when they're wet) as you'll just compact the soil making it rock solid.

Wait until the surface is dry and run over it with a besom broom or stiff brush. This will distribute the clumps and allow the grass to grow through.

If it has become particularly lumpy, then a some bags of lawn dressing brushed over and raked in will help to even it. Never roll it though.

Kris

 

Thanks Kris

This constant damp conditions aren't making it easy. I could do with some dry weather to let the soil dry out.