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New lawn gone bad ☹️ Solutions?

daniel_boznerdaniel_bozner Posts: 7
in Problem solving
Hi I dug up my garden after we moved into a new house as we wanted grass for the kids. I clearly made mistakes when preparing the ground for the new lawn as drainage is terrible and a lot of the grass died within the first year. We put this down to freezing conditions and neighbours cats using it as a toilet for the first year but that clearly wasn’t the problem. Could anyone tell me what to do to bring the lawn back to life as I know very little about lawn care. Or is my only option to rip up the grass and start again?

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  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited March 2021
    I think that’ll come back good enough for a play lawn. 

    I’d give it a good scarifying with a spring tine lawn rake to remove the ‘thatch’ (dead brown leaves) but don’t uproot them grass. 

    Then a feed with something like Evergreen 80 lawn fertiliser ... apply carefully measuring the lawn into 1m squares and weighing the fertiliser in a paper cup (mark the cup so you don’t have to keep weighing) ... applying too much will scorch the grass and you’ll have a real problem. 

    Make sure it’s watered in well too. 

    Then wait ... the grass will grow ... mow regularly once a week so it doesn’t get too long and tussocky ... but don’t cut it too short either or the roots will burn in the heat of the summer sun. 

    Keep the mower blade on the middle setting and you won’t go far wrong 😊 


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





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