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Private rented house; catastrophic lawn
MsMoss
Posts: 4
Hi all, very newbie gardener here. This will be quite a long question, for which I apologise.
I'm in private rented accommodation, and there's a decent-sized back garden. It's clearly had no love at all for some years now, but I'd like to make it more than just a patch of weed-infested lawn.
The lawn... The lawn is almost comically, catastrophically awful. It's unbelievably uneven (goes in about 20 different directions across the piece), slopes up at the edges and has small brambles poking up all over. And so much bloody crab grass and thatch! I'm digging in some borders as I plan to be here for a while. However, these are level with the edge of the lawn.
Because it's private rented, I don't want to spend a fortune in the first instance, but I do want to level out the lawn. I also want to eventually lay the lawn to moss; there's already quite a lot and I find both it, and the idea of relatively low maintenance appealing.
If I wanted to use excess soil from the borders to level out the lawn, should I remove all the moss first and just kind of bury the existing grass (both the finer and coarser stuff)? How on earth should I even approach this task? And when?
Sorry for the long-winded post, but I hope it made sense. Any advice gratefully received!
I'm in private rented accommodation, and there's a decent-sized back garden. It's clearly had no love at all for some years now, but I'd like to make it more than just a patch of weed-infested lawn.
The lawn... The lawn is almost comically, catastrophically awful. It's unbelievably uneven (goes in about 20 different directions across the piece), slopes up at the edges and has small brambles poking up all over. And so much bloody crab grass and thatch! I'm digging in some borders as I plan to be here for a while. However, these are level with the edge of the lawn.
Because it's private rented, I don't want to spend a fortune in the first instance, but I do want to level out the lawn. I also want to eventually lay the lawn to moss; there's already quite a lot and I find both it, and the idea of relatively low maintenance appealing.
If I wanted to use excess soil from the borders to level out the lawn, should I remove all the moss first and just kind of bury the existing grass (both the finer and coarser stuff)? How on earth should I even approach this task? And when?
Sorry for the long-winded post, but I hope it made sense. Any advice gratefully received!
0
Posts
I rent too, I must have spent a good couple of grand over the years on the garden, and a whole lot of effort, but as I see it, it's money well spent because I love it - my little piece of heaven, the birds and wildlife love it, even my gardening averse mister loves it 😄. Plus, if I ever left I'd take most of the plants. 😁
When we moved here there was a lawn full of ground elder that was uneven and badly drained and an ugly path to the shed..... It's very different now.
Just because you don't own it, it is still your home and therefore supposed to provide you with shelter and sanctuary. Don't spend your time making do until....... Live now! Make what you have lovely to you within your capability and enjoy it! We never know what's around the corner. Any decent landlord will very much appreciate a caring tennant. As you can see, there not much lawn left now!
It just took time. Swapping cuttings with friends, growing from seeds.... All of my furniture came from Freecycle.... One of my benches has 3 legs bit I prop it on bricks and my name is Wonky after all! Just start creating what makes you happy and see where it takes you. Best of luck with it and ask any questions or advice, we are always happy to help and encourage.
However, if you just want moss - just leave it and mow really closely. The moss will probably take over quite happily if there's plenty there already. It depends on how you want to use it though - moss isn't brilliant if you have children running about on it regularly etc
If you want reasonable grass though, mow it little and often, give it the odd feed, and maybe one of the weed :)and feed products - depending on a) how you feel about them and b) what you use the grass for and how fussy you are about it being 'perfect'. You can then fill dips/hollows with some topsoil and sow some seed later in the year. Probably not ideal to do the levelling/sowing just now unless you have suitable conditions. It's quite wasteful in terms of water resources, so either autumn or early spring is better, especially if you're on one of those water meters.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...