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Lawn still looks terrible after scarifying

jaffacakesjaffacakes Posts: 434
in Problem solving
Hi all,

I scarified and raked the my lawn about 4 weeks ago and expected the lawn to look bad for a while but it still looks pretty bad. I even topdressed a bit and sowed some seed. Probably was a bit too early in the season after the cold snap last week.

Do you have any advise or should i just leave it alone to recover? I was digging up a bit of the grass sods in the border and can see why there was moss. It's fairly compacted. Lawn also has lots of weeds.

Maybe i could go over whole garden with a fork, rake again and sow more seed if it doesn't recover?

Thanks for any advice




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Posts

  • glasgowdanglasgowdan Posts: 632
    Where are you? It's too early for lawn recovery in most of the UK
  • jaffacakesjaffacakes Posts: 434
    I'm in south Ireland so similar climate to UK. Yeah i'm hoping it will recover in the coming weeks with temperatures creeping up.
  • KT53KT53 Posts: 9,016
    I think that's what the "scari" bit of scarifying means.  Scares you half to death once you've done it. :)
  • jaffacakesjaffacakes Posts: 434
    Definitely scary.  :D I think it looks a bit greener after more rain today or many it's my imagination. Fingers crossed it will be lush green by May with temperatures improving again recently.
  • glasgowdanglasgowdan Posts: 632
    I saw a post by an Instagram user mg_gardens today that highlights perfectly how a scary looking lawn will turn around! 
  • Papi JoPapi Jo Posts: 4,254
    @jaffacakes you don't say HOW you scarified your lawn. I suppose you used a machine. I scarify my lawn twice a year with a hand-scarifier similar to the one pictured below. It's the only way to not "destroy" your lawn... but of course it is quite a tiring, back-breaking operation. I can do it because my lawn is fairly small (about 150 m²).
  • jaffacakesjaffacakes Posts: 434
    I used an aldi electric scarifier. It filled lots and lots of bags with moss and thatch so i guess it worked. I have some mobacter lawn feed which i might apply soon. There is weeds in the lawn too but not too many. Some yarrow which is green so that's ok. Don't mind the odd weed.
  • madpenguinmadpenguin Posts: 2,543
    This is my lawn last week.
    No mowing since November.
    No scarifying.
    No feeding.
    No weeding.
    No moss killing.
    No hard work!
     B) 

    “Every day is ordinary, until it isn't.” - Bernard Cornwell-Death of Kings
  • jamesharcourtjamesharcourt Posts: 465
    I would be inclined to repeat the process as there is a lot of yellow / dead material.  

    I’ve done this a lot over the years and has almost always worked as long as temps are above 6-7 degrees C.

    First cut the grass short, scalping short.

    Next scarify,  I use a simple machine and the idea is to loosen the soil and remove as much dead / weak stuff as possible and expose the loosened soil.

    Next is the hard bit and is easiest if you do this after a lot of watering.  Stick a fork into the ground every foot or two and wiggle it around, a lot.  This part is labourious as hell but is hugely important.

    Then ... the fun but possibly expensive parts ... buy and empty a few big bags of lawn soil, the slightly sandy loamy stuff, fine textured, in equal spaced out areas on the whole lawn and rake over so it covers the existing soil enough so that the living grass is showing above it.

    Lastly, seed the whole area evenly.  A rolled seed spreader is great for an area like yours but hand spreading will work. Then walk over if to tread it in, or roll it... ideally hand sprinkling more lawn soil just to cover it a tiny bit.  Stick a few CDs on strings on branches around the garden to distract birds from eating it all.

    Natural rain every two days is a big help but if it doesn’t happen you must keep that surface layer wet.  Wet and warm is key.  When the seedlings pop keep watering if possible.

    i think if you do this and wait 4-6 weeks it will look great, so mid to end of May.  But it takes a lot of work.  

    Of of course the easier but more expensive way is to turf the lot.  But if you can keep dogs and kids off it the manual way is more rewarding.


  • jaffacakesjaffacakes Posts: 434
    Thank you. My back hurt just reading that  :D I am really hoping it recovers a bit without having to do it again. Maybe i could hold off until autumn for another scarify if it still doesn't look great.
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