My lawn needs a bit of TLC and Autumn is a good time to do it.

Parts of it are full of moss / lichen and other parts are weedy. From what I can tell I need to do the following, in about this order –

Moss / weed killer
Mow
De-compact
Scarify
Rake in top finish (mix of sand)
Mow
Feed
Over-seed

Any advice on any other jobs or change in the order?

Scarify after the moss killer. You’ll have to wait for the right time to do that though, usually a week afterwards.

If it’s really mossy, you could consider aereating the lawn after scarifying, then rake sand in to give it a little more drainage.

Thanks, the ‘De-compacting’ stage is also aerating, digging in the tines of the garden fork and giving a little lift.

Some parts of the lawn are really rather mossy.

Are you me?

Moved into a new house this summer, the lawn is in a terrible state. It is mostly moss with a bit of weeds and the odd blade of grass thrown in for good measure. I accidentally scalped part of the lawn with the new lawn mower (never owned one before), that bit of lawn is the nicest bit in the garden 🙂

Remember, cut no more than 10% of the length of the grass, otherwise you’ll cut down to the white heart section and cause it to looked burned.

Remember, cut no more than 10% of the length of the grass, otherwise you’ll cut down to the white heart section and cause it to looked burned.

In Spring / Summer I’d need to mow it every day to only take off 10%! It gets mowed once a week and often take off >50% height, which it doesn’t seem to mind at all.

I use Feed, weed and moss killer once a month all year round + scarify it in spring / autumn. Then over seed in the spring / autumn to fill in holes (mainly caused by squirrels digging holes).

I’m not convinced that the 3 in one products should work, but if they do, thats useful to know

I’m not convinced that the 3 in one products should work, but if they do, thats useful to know

Yep, very well. We have really sandy soil, so nutrients drain out quickly, hence the monthly application. Not seen a single weed or any moss for years….

Yep, very well. We have really sandy soil, so nutrients drain out quickly, hence the monthly application. Not seen a single weed or any moss for years….

Any recommendations?

Any recommendations?

This stuff. Buy it in big bags…

The only lawn problems it doesn’t cure are squirrels burying / retrieving stuff (holes the size of eggs everywhere) and flying ant nests – which just seem to remove the grass in a 10cm wide circle late summer when the nest hatches……

Blimey Footflaps, you’re a bit keen! Mow your lawn every day!! 😯

I have quite a big garden now, so really don’t bother with all the treatments as it gets too expensive, but find that if you do mow it regularly, dig out the major weeds, it tends to look pretty good all by itself. At the end of the winter it had a lot of moss, but that gradually disappeared through the summer.

One thing not much mentioned was aeration. This works well especially in well used lawns that have compacted. Use a garden fork, wait until the ground is well moist and create lots of holes all over. Allows oxygen into the ground and promotes growth.

I’m no gardener but I did meet a guy on holiday one year who was a groundsman at a premier football club. His top tip – mow regularly even if that’s just once a week. Weeds hate it and if you do it consistently ( 😳 ) then that’ll solve most problems (his words).

Nobody here can advise what your lawn needs without seeing it and understanding the soil conditions.

I treat and improve lawns every day and rarely are two the same. What I do see are a lot of houses in new build estates with lawns on top of clay and rubble. People call me up to make their lawns nice and I simply tell them to save their money, or go big and skim 10cm off, bring in new topsoil and returf the whole lot.

I can also recommend evergreen 4 in 1, but don’t overdo the application rate, and make sure it’s going to rain in the next 1-2 days.

I decided it was all too much hassle and got one of the lawn care companies to come in and do it for me.

Nobody here can advise what your lawn needs without seeing it and understanding the soil conditions.

I bow to your superior knowledge but thats not strictly true. The advice I gave would relate to any properly laid lawn on any soil, although as you say, if its been laid on poor/non existent soil, nothing is going to work.

Blimey Footflaps, you’re a bit keen! Mow your lawn every day!!

Er no, I said once a week…..

I decided it was all too much hassle and got one of the lawn care companies to come in and do it for me.

I did try that for a couple of years, but it wasn’t enough and cost way more than DIY. £50 four times a year to apply feed and weed when I can buy enough to treat every month for under £100.

I just let the moss grow – it’s nice and green and doesn’t need mowing.

glasgowdan – Member
Nobody here can advise what your lawn needs without seeing it and understanding the soil conditions.

I treat and improve lawns every day and rarely are two the same. What I do see are a lot of houses in new build estates with lawns on top of clay and rubble.

dan – exactly what we have on what was a new build 12 yrs ago in EK. Grass has got progressively worse over the years (we have had house since new). First few yrs I wasted cash on the various treatments, now it is just short mossy weedy scrub, but at least it only needs cut once a month 😯

You people who are aerating and raking in sand – how much sand do you use?

Dan – any tips on my lawn (without seeing it) – it’s ‘newly’ laid, about a year ago, previously was an area covered in shrubs and ornamental pines; I took all that off, dug down about a foot to pick out as much of the roots as i could (although being pine there were thousands of fine fibrous ones) and added fresh topsoil and compost to give it a start. i then turfed, which took really well at first and then deteriorated, so i now have some bare areas and also has become very uneven.

I’ve been told to get a load of screened topsoil and completely cover it to level the holes and then seed all over, so i get a mix of existing grass and fresh growth; is that a reasonable solution. How much topsoil will i need approx for a 4m x 4m patch?

£50 four times a year

Mine costs me £31 x 4 times for a small front lawn and a larger than average (but not huge) back garden.

theotherjony that sounds reasonable, I’d go for 4-6kg top dressing per m2. Get the good quality dry stuff as it’s easy to rake in. Seed, it’s a good time of year to do it just now, and WATER with a sprinkler each evening for a couple of weeks if it’s dry until you see the seed start to germinate.

I’d suggest a hardy grass seed, not anything that’s labelled ornamental, as the previous shrubs will have altered the pH of the soil. It’s unlikely it’ll become a bowling green, but should be possible to make it even and green!

I ALWAYS advise against using lawn franchises. I have seen so many examples of poor workmanship, such as scarifying during a harsh frost, spraying a lawn with WATER (no familiar smell and no result), broadcast spreading granules all over borders, ferrous on slabs, aerating unevenly and too shallow, and my favourite, the “single pass scarify, get rid of the moss yourself”!

theotherjony that sounds reasonable, I’d go for 4-6kg top dressing per m2. Get the good quality dry stuff as it’s easy to rake in. Seed, it’s a good time of year to do it just now, and WATER with a sprinkler each evening for a couple of weeks if it’s dry until you see the seed start to germinate.

I’d suggest a hardy grass seed, not anything that’s labelled ornamental, as the previous shrubs will have altered the pH of the soil. It’s unlikely it’ll become a bowling green, but should be possible to make it even and green!

I ALWAYS advise against using lawn franchises. I have seen so many examples of poor workmanship, such as scarifying during a harsh frost, spraying a lawn with WATER (no familiar smell and no result), broadcast spreading granules all over borders, ferrous on slabs, aerating unevenly and too shallow, and my favourite, the “single pass scarify, get rid of the moss yourself”!

mow lawn very short first, saves on the amount of moss you have to rake out

I got rid of the moss in my lawn in Spring with Evergreen 4-in-1. the lawn was 2/3rds moss. Worked really well then I re-seeded and it’s not too bad now but signs of moss coming back and the grass isn’t very thick.
Tonight I’ve aerated it as I think the ground is too compacted to get good roots.
Might seed it again, and top dress it.
Lawns are hard work, especially when you don’t know what you’re doing!!

Lawns are hard work

They’re not natural, so it’s a constant battle to keep nature at bay.

Cheers Dan, that’s a plan for the weekend then.

Do we think now is a good time to put some more seed down?

Possibly a bit early, ideally you want it damp but not too cool. It’s pretty dry this week in the SE.

did mine on Saturday as per the plan above and some is starting to sprout already. So it’s thumbs up from me. must remember to water it though!!

Wow, better get to it then whilst it’s still warm enough.

In terms of weather, it hasn’t rained here for over a week but the garden is very moist, seems to be plenty of dew.

I scarified the worst bits of lawn this weekend and the amount of moss that came up was immense.

When I started I was just give it a single place like you would with the lawnmower, but the last pieces I kept going over and over. The lawn looks very brown at the moment but I’m sure its done it the world of good.

Is it possible to over scarify the lawn?

I dunno, but you can put too much weed n feed down as I recently discovered.

Lawn feed will scorch the grass if you don’t put it down before / during rain apparently.

Dew will do a decent job of dissolving the feed, though if it’s a proper dry snap then avoid feeding. One client of mine almost ruined her lawn by feeding during that dry spell, but now that it has recovered it’s growing like crazy!

If you’re able to keep a lawn watered then seeding now is fine. If not, wait until the end of the month. One other reason for scarifying is to go deeper and carry out root pruning, verti cutting or whatever you want to call it. Basically the tines go deep and cut down into the soil, slicing the roots of the grass as well as ripping out any moss. This obviously has to be followed up with a seed and watering (plus I always sell a feed to go with this as it really helps).

You CAN overscarify a lawn if you don’t follow up with enough seeding and care afterwards. I tend to do 3 passes, starting shallow to check out where the bumps and humps in the lawn are, and deepen on the 2-3rd passes. I regularly watch greenthumb scarify with one pass only, miss areas they have applied iron on (leaving black moss untouched), leave dozens of bin bags of moss on client’s driveways and also carry out hard scarifying on frosty and even snowy lawns in winter. It’s bonkers – they must work on a very high client churn rate hence the fortune they have to spend on marketing.

I’ve got a mushroom/toadstool infestation in mine. Is there treatment, or do I need to dig out the soil with spores in it and returf?

+1 on not mowing too short. My son did this and pretty much killed half the garden. The grass looked burned and then died. 4 in 1 plus extra grass seed has slowly returned the lawn to it’s former glory. Still some patches left.

My top tips are thus:

1. Don’t cut too short or too often. Personally I’d never cut more than once a fortnight
2. Don’t collect the grass. I know this is a vaguely controversial point but it works for me. Leave it lying on the lawn for 3 or 4 days, it’ll pass some nutrients back to the lawn and dry out leaving you with a lot less to gather up.
3. 4 in 1 is great for de-patching
4. There’s some anti-girl dog wee stuff out there in B&Q. Aluminium sulphate or something. If you have a girl dog and they’re killing your lawn, this stuff works great. Probably dead harmful.
5. Mushrooms. Just mow ’em.

More sand?

I was planning this after the weekend:

Mix sand and compost up in a bin, then spread seed all over the lawn and then cover it with the sand and compost mix. The idea is that this would hide the seed from the birds and trap a little moisture to get the seeds growing. I’d apply a little more sand/compost in the dips.

Sound ok?

“Don’t cut too short or too often. Personally I’d never cut more than once a fortnight”

Agree on not going too short

but cutting reasonable short and often helps keeps weeds and moss at bay

if i left my grass 2 weeks it would be the height of the windows.

YMMV if its dry where you live.

Was watching Gardeners World the other day that I may have recorded 2-3 weeks ago, so may be on iplayer. Anyway, Monty went to see a gardener who had looked after one of the best lawns in the country for about 30 years and was getting all the tips.

He advocated the aeration, loosening the soil and then putting loads of the topsoil/sand/fertiliser mix on top and using a special tool called a lute to push into the holes and also even out the holes etc. When he had finished, most of the existing grass was visible.

When asked what three tips he would give to keep your lawn looking good, he said….’Aeration, Aeration, Aeration!’