Old Tennis Court!!!
Wilf1234
Posts: 3
Hi.
We've recently moved in to a new house. There is a great rectangular lawn which I believe used to be a Tennis court. It seems to be 60% moss 40% thin grass, so I went over it with a fork this afternoon (to try and improve drainage) and the topsoil seems to be incredibly thin (say 3"/75mm). I presume that's the old Tennis Court gravelly surfacing underneath.
Our kids love playing football on the area, but being moss the turf is digging up and divots are flying with every tackle or shot. I fear that we're going to end up with a ploughed field in next to no time.
I desperately don't want to lay a new lawn as we are pretty strapped for cash. Is there any particular breed of grass, or moss-killer (or combination of both) that I could use to try and promote a better, more wearing grass finish to grow??
Thanks for your help
Posts
It seems like the tennis court is either wet or shady or both
If wet it could be because it isn't draining properly in which case you need a hollow tine fork (about £10 on ebay) and use it to dig drainage holes, fill them with sand
You may need to add a ton of topsoil to bring the level up if you have dips
Good quality grass seed is not very expensive and anyway much cheaper then turfs
Get a rye grass which is toughest
if the kids are teenage then no amount of tlc will protect the grass, get them to play on half of it and switch which half every month, don't mow too short while the "at rest" half recovers
What ever you do wont help if the grass is in full shade, it needs the sun.
Thanks guys - great stuff- anyone had any joy with a mechanical aerators (to save me several hours with the hollow tine fork)? (It's quite a large area, probably twice the size of a tennis court in total.
Cheers
Surely he would have to use a moss killer?
Thanks!! Although, now I'm depressed- I'll stick in some effort and see what happens!!!
I'm thinking that if it was used as a tennis court, it's going to be really , really compacted.
I'm not sure a hollow tine fork will do the trick, but might wreck your back and sap your will to live. ( been there done that )
Hopefully it was a grass court rather than a clay one. If so you'll have a much easier time with it. Push a spade down as far as you can to cut a square and lift it out. That should give you a good idea of how it was constructed.
OP has said...
We've recently moved in to a new house. There is a great rectangular lawn which I believe used to be a Tennis court. It seems to be 60% moss 40% thin grass, so I went over it with a fork this afternoon (to try and improve drainage) and the topsoil seems to be incredibly thin (say 3"/75mm). I presume that's the old Tennis Court gravelly surfacing underneath.
I would have to agree with Pansy, spiking it is not going to be the answer, I think it will need digging up, fresh top soil and re seeded or turf. There are no short cuts.IMO.
Prodding with a fork won't tell you much about how it has been constructed - a section needs to be taken, as I said, Lyn.
Which I which was what I said above.
I also have an old tennis at my house I recently purchased. i rounded up some estimates to remove it and they came in at 12,500€ to 5000 only for 1/2 to 2/3 removal, so a complete removal would be even more.
due to the high cost of removal and unforeseen costs of reestablishing a smooth terrain after, I am looking at other alternatives. And am now planning on building raised beds... I will also dig 2 trenches across the court for drainage...