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Awful lawn!
Hello.
I'm new to the forum and I'm struggling with lawn.
I'm not sure why or how this keeps happening but in a short story, I moved into my house last year in late winter early spring.
In early spring I set about trying to fix the garden, the main problem was the lawn in the back was balding and very very thin. It wasn't thick at all.
At first I attempted to seek advice off family members who up here in Cumbria had very much good advice as the family members I asked where very keen gardeners.
The first bit of advice was dig it up, remove any rubbish, stones, weeds and sods of grass, then rotovate it. Keep off the dirt for a few weeks to let it settle then check the PH level, buy lawn seeds accordingly and do seeds on patches.
I did all of this and.... It was pointless, I spent more money on seeds that what it would cost buying rolls of lawn from my local store.
Finally I managed to get a lawn that was ok, but if you cut it to short you could see the thinning..
The PH of the dirt wasn't brilliant, in the upper end it was nice and neutral, closer to the house it was, well close to acidic as you could get.
I then changed tactic, I bought some items to aid in drainage (because the law is higher away from the house and lower towards it) I added garden sand and added some other items to bring back the PH to a higher point.
Then I decided to buy roll ends at a cheap price, placed it at the lower point of my garden then added seeds again to the lower part.
I managed to alter the patio bit so it would divert the rain water away from the garden and onto the bath Infront of the house where the drainage was.
I managed to raise the lower part of the garden slightly and I seen that the grass seeds where happily growing.
I gave my lawn one last cut to roughly 6inches (half a foot) so that it wasn't extremely short and gave it one last feed before the rain and winter weather kicked in.
I'm looking at my lawn now and it's not over grown or anything but I've once again noticed that the lower part of my garden is once again, extremely thin and looks quite unhappy. Including the roll ends I bought.
My partners grandad said it's highly likely the weather and rain plus the less amount of sunlight it gets has caused some upset, in autumn the lower side began to puddle up, no idea why because the drains where clear. He pointed out it's possible a drainage problem with the lawn itself, he pointed out one thing I'd not quite thought about.
He pointed out my home is built on an old Mine pit. When removing stones etc I found old pottery, a coin from 1819, old thick glass, old bricks and lots of other weird items including bits of metal and such objects.
Hes pointed out it's possible that the lower part of the garden is more clay like soil because it's not like standing on mud as such, he pointed out when you stand on it when it's wet it's like standing in clay, the suction pulls your feet and a few of my neices and nephews have ended up face first on the garden as they stepped on it in the autumn when it was wet.
He pointed out that the lower part always seems softer and more wet, pointing to water retention and he believes that the issue will continue because I under the dirt will be other debris that will continue to clagg the soil and with the water running towards the lower side, it will just speed up the process because it will have plenty of water.
He basically pointed out, imagine adding water to a never ending amount of dry clay, the more you add the worse it gets.
When I asked for suggestions he pointed out I could do a number of different things but in reality he said I should think about moving the path and maybe use the power side of the garden for plants that like the conditions, because as he stated, nature will take care of it.
He pointed out that he can't see any major problems it's just the dip on the garden is quite sudden and as he explained to me it's like ramp. The steeper the ramp the quicker you go. The water is the same but the drains can't handle it.
He pointed out a multitude of choices. But he recommended the flowers or move my patio are onto the clay bit, do it properly though.
Can anyone here give any advice? Is it a waste of time buying stuff to fix it? Should I just rearrange my garden?
Thanks for any advice
Jared
I'm new to the forum and I'm struggling with lawn.
I'm not sure why or how this keeps happening but in a short story, I moved into my house last year in late winter early spring.
In early spring I set about trying to fix the garden, the main problem was the lawn in the back was balding and very very thin. It wasn't thick at all.
At first I attempted to seek advice off family members who up here in Cumbria had very much good advice as the family members I asked where very keen gardeners.
The first bit of advice was dig it up, remove any rubbish, stones, weeds and sods of grass, then rotovate it. Keep off the dirt for a few weeks to let it settle then check the PH level, buy lawn seeds accordingly and do seeds on patches.
I did all of this and.... It was pointless, I spent more money on seeds that what it would cost buying rolls of lawn from my local store.
Finally I managed to get a lawn that was ok, but if you cut it to short you could see the thinning..
The PH of the dirt wasn't brilliant, in the upper end it was nice and neutral, closer to the house it was, well close to acidic as you could get.
I then changed tactic, I bought some items to aid in drainage (because the law is higher away from the house and lower towards it) I added garden sand and added some other items to bring back the PH to a higher point.
Then I decided to buy roll ends at a cheap price, placed it at the lower point of my garden then added seeds again to the lower part.
I managed to alter the patio bit so it would divert the rain water away from the garden and onto the bath Infront of the house where the drainage was.
I managed to raise the lower part of the garden slightly and I seen that the grass seeds where happily growing.
I gave my lawn one last cut to roughly 6inches (half a foot) so that it wasn't extremely short and gave it one last feed before the rain and winter weather kicked in.
I'm looking at my lawn now and it's not over grown or anything but I've once again noticed that the lower part of my garden is once again, extremely thin and looks quite unhappy. Including the roll ends I bought.
My partners grandad said it's highly likely the weather and rain plus the less amount of sunlight it gets has caused some upset, in autumn the lower side began to puddle up, no idea why because the drains where clear. He pointed out it's possible a drainage problem with the lawn itself, he pointed out one thing I'd not quite thought about.
He pointed out my home is built on an old Mine pit. When removing stones etc I found old pottery, a coin from 1819, old thick glass, old bricks and lots of other weird items including bits of metal and such objects.
Hes pointed out it's possible that the lower part of the garden is more clay like soil because it's not like standing on mud as such, he pointed out when you stand on it when it's wet it's like standing in clay, the suction pulls your feet and a few of my neices and nephews have ended up face first on the garden as they stepped on it in the autumn when it was wet.
He pointed out that the lower part always seems softer and more wet, pointing to water retention and he believes that the issue will continue because I under the dirt will be other debris that will continue to clagg the soil and with the water running towards the lower side, it will just speed up the process because it will have plenty of water.
He basically pointed out, imagine adding water to a never ending amount of dry clay, the more you add the worse it gets.
When I asked for suggestions he pointed out I could do a number of different things but in reality he said I should think about moving the path and maybe use the power side of the garden for plants that like the conditions, because as he stated, nature will take care of it.
He pointed out that he can't see any major problems it's just the dip on the garden is quite sudden and as he explained to me it's like ramp. The steeper the ramp the quicker you go. The water is the same but the drains can't handle it.
He pointed out a multitude of choices. But he recommended the flowers or move my patio are onto the clay bit, do it properly though.
Can anyone here give any advice? Is it a waste of time buying stuff to fix it? Should I just rearrange my garden?
Thanks for any advice
Jared
0
Posts
In short - rotovating is a bad idea - it chops up perennial weeds and can then make that worse.
Clay soil which is un amended will always be a problem. Add in shade and that affects it, and if you have lots of rain, and the soil isn't well enough amended, and with good drainage, it doesn't work if you want to use the grass. Fine if you keep off it in winter, which most people do anyway. Clay needs lots of organic matter added to it to help the structure.
Newly sown grass should never be cut too short, and it matters even more if you have drought conditions like many people did last year.
The pH isn't really relevant either, it's about drainage and a suitable seed for the site. Leaving the grass too long for winter isn't always a good idea, and adding food to that is counter productive - in mild weather it'll grow, and then be problematic for cutting in spring.
There are no shortcuts if you want a reasonable lawn.
Without a photo, we can't really offer advice on how you plan a layout for the space. We have no way of knowing how the site looks, and what slope there is on it. That isn't really a problem either if the soil drains properly
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
You seem to have gone to a lot of work and expense before solving the basic problem. Identify the problem(s) before you do any more.
Rearranging the garden may be needed.
Some photos would help us to help you. Some test digs in key parts of the garden might show up something.
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."