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Restore old, weedy leathery lawn
Graham7
Posts: 2
Hi guys, newbie here but I have been pottering around the garden for years and enjoy all elements, even the hard work :0
ive just bought a new house, and the back garden is around 10 years old and doesn't seem to have been looked after since day one. It is covered in thick weeds growing among the grass. although they are not tall in height, they are leathery and densely spread amount the grass.
I would like to bring the lawn back to the beautiful weed free green its crying out to be.
Can somebody please help me out and let me know what the best way to do this would be? I could include a picture here but I can't seem it find the option to do so on my ipad.
Many thanks, graham
0
Posts
Hi Graha
Give a good spring cut , leaving about 2in of growth. Apply a quality weed and feed to the lawn. After about 2 weeks your weeds should die back but you may need to apply some spot weed killer for more evasive weeds. This will leave you with bare areas where weeds and moss have been killed off. Scarifying your lawn with a lawn rake will remove all the dead material from it. Next stage is to aerate your lawn buy using a hollow tine fork. This will make 5 in deep holes in your lawn .Buy or produce your own top dressings( sieved top soil, multi purpuse compost and horticultural sand).Apply this to the lawn, brushing it in to the holes made by the tine fork. This create drainage holes allowing water and air to get to the compacted root areas. The scarifying you did previously will a left a tilt of soil over the lawn .Apply grass seed in to the bare tilt areas in the lawn. Water lawn well and water regularly through out the season and remove any persistent weeds by hand ensuring that you remove the whole weed and tap root
I agree: most weeds won't stand mowing. keep mowing and you'll lose most of them.
thanks guys i appreciate the tips. I cut the grass yesterday, and im planning to use the weed and feed this afternoon. i will keep you posted and let you know how i get on. Great advice greenfingers steve im hoping by the summer it will be looking a lot better and fresher.