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Lawn problems
Lauren Di
Posts: 2
Hi, Recently bought a property with a good sized garden, half of which is lawn. However the house has been empty for over a year, and the garden has been neglected, especially the grassed area. Problems are as follows: 1. Soil was completely saturated, starting to dry out now but still seems to be holding a lot of water. The grass was very long and wild, could this have prevented evaporation and helped to hold onto excess water? Soil seems to be extremely wet, possibly clay. 2. Excessive weeds, moss, clovers, very little of it is actually nice grass! 3. Clumps of very thick, grassy species, like you'd expect to find at the side of a pond. Almost hard, stiff stems. Just wondering where to start really, any tips/advice to help us salvage what we can, would be gratefully received! For info we are in the north west of England, garden has very slight slope down away from house, and we get a north west sized quantity of rain 
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Posts
I would suggest this is a good time for digging a few trial pits to investigate just what you are faced with. Say either ends of the lawn and in the verges. About 500 square and 500 deep unless you reach bedrock before. This will tell you if you are on total clay or if you have just a compacted top layer. It will also tell you if the soil is totally waterlogged or when you go through the top layer if it is better drained and you are not into ground water.
With this information it will be possible to suggest the best plans of approach.
Thanks, think I will give that a go this weekend