This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
My lawn has turned to mud
nicoleturnerlou
Posts: 2
please help as I have no idea about lawns! I moved into a new build house last may and had a lovely lawn and now it is basically a giant mud bath, what do you think could be the cause of this ? There is an enormous tree at the back of us which a lot of people think is the problem. I have attached a before and after picture below .... any advice appreciated thanks in advance.
0
Posts
This is a new build property a few people are now saying it will be the soil that thshe builders have put down, has anyone ever heard of this ?
I would put it down to the rubbish soil builders usually leave on new builds, I had a friend couldn't figure out why half her lawn died every summer, when we dug down 30cm there was an old tarpaulin buried!
I would assume compacted soil (diggers driving over it etc.) so you might have to have a dig and see what the state of the ground it before you do anything.
Our front garden was planted with heathers as the only answer to what the builders left when the house was built, lots of bricks, tiles even chunks of concrete, I suspect this is what has happened in your garden, Nicole
I agree with the others. Many years ago my sister moved into a new build house I was volunteered to take my fathers small rotavator up to dig the back garden but I could not use it as I kept hitting half bricks lumps of concrete etc. Most builders seem to bulldoze up the top soil in a big heap at the start & then scrape it back down at the end so what you end up with really is pot luck. The turf that was put on top would not have been properly laid either. Sorry for the gloom but you will need to dig it up carefully & see what you have got & go from there. If it's really awful you might have to import some good quality topsoil, you would not be the first to have to do that.
Good luck
The tree will create shade, which isn't great for grass anyway, but you need to look at the condition of the soil as the others have said. It's uniformly bad, so the state of the medium the grass is on is the most likely problem.
If it's soggy, the ground is probably compacted - very common in new builds. Feet trampling the ground and then turf chucked on top.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Yes you need to dig up a patch and actually see what your grass is growing on. The lawn will have been cheap turf thrown onto unprepared ground likley, in your case. If you think drainage is a problem, sorting that out, laying some good soil and definetly SEEDING the lawn, your grass should be fine, good luck!
Dig up as much as you can (with help and machinery preferably), remove all the waste product, if you can afford it order in a suitable soil mix with compost and grit for drainage. There's grass seed for shade but failing that try to create more light by pruning certain lower branches, however, I suspect this isn't your problem as the tree won't have leaves right now and all parts of the lawn are dead. However, it can contribute to drying of the soil and lack of nutrients to bare in mind for the future. I agree with the others, it's all builders rubbish underneath preventing drainage and creating puddles of mud.
Last edited: 11 February 2017 12:37:20