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Will a weed killer work?

liamkeefeFHbu4eVBliamkeefeFHbu4eVB Posts: 9
in Problem solving
Hello Gardeners World

First post. Please see my garden! "All" I want is a lawn.

I have plenty of time, but not much money to spend on this. Would something like Miracle-Gro Evergreen Complete do anything here? 

Thanks



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Posts

  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    edited May 2023
    A lawn is just grass, controlled.  Start by mowing.  After several mows you will be down to just grass and a feww other plants that survive that treatment.  It might be beginning to look like a lawn.

    Initially, I would not bother with a grass-box.

    Next, if needed, oversow thinly with grass seed (possibly short growing ryegrass, possibly shade tolerant).  Start to collect an d compost  the cut grass.

    At a much later stage you could consider a lawnweed killer ( that kills weeds, not all, but not grass).  
     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
  • liamkeefeFHbu4eVBliamkeefeFHbu4eVB Posts: 9
    Thank you. I'll crack on mowing. 
  • LoxleyLoxley Posts: 5,698
    Good advice there. Just to add, would be nice to leave a few flowers around the edge for the bees!
    "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour". 
  • liamkeefeFHbu4eVBliamkeefeFHbu4eVB Posts: 9
    The back garden
  • liamkeefeFHbu4eVBliamkeefeFHbu4eVB Posts: 9
    edited May 2023
    First full cut. 
  • debs64debs64 Posts: 5,184
    I am not an expert but I doubt you will have a perfect lawn with mature trees growing in it. What about longer grass? More of a meadow type? 
  • liamkeefeFHbu4eVBliamkeefeFHbu4eVB Posts: 9
    Def not looking for perfect. Just want the kids to be able to play out without fear of tripping over nestled vines, nettles and thorns. 
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited May 2023
    If you keep mowing it’s amazing how ok it can be. We had a similar area way back when @WonkyWomble and her brother were young … we had no spare funds to do things properly, so we just kept mowing with a battered old rotary mower … 

     
    It turned into a reasonable area for playing on and keeping pet rabbits on 😊 
    The only money that we spent on it was to buy the trees. 
    Children don’t need a smooth lawn  … level-ish grass with a few weeds in is fine. 

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





  • liamkeefeFHbu4eVBliamkeefeFHbu4eVB Posts: 9
    Thanks. It's quite a downward slope - side to side flat is the goal also! 
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    Children don't care if there's a slope either. They'd never have managed to play in our garden when they were little if that was the case. Hardly any of it was level  :)
    Perfection in a grassed area for children is rarely worth aiming for. Just a reasonable area suitable for them to play on, as @Dovefromabove describes. My girls loved having all the daisies we had for making chains. 
    Regular mowing - not too short, will give them a great play area. The trees cause shade, but you can seed with a suitable seed mix, and you'll have to accept that the areas below them won't be brilliant, but you can adapt those with suitable planting instead. You'll get help with that if you want to go down that route. 

    When they're older, and more interested in staying in their rooms with phones/boys/music etc, you can start turning it into something you like a bit more.  ;)
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
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