"lee5768" wrote in message
...

hi all,

i know nothing about gardening at all and i could use as much advice as
i
can get about the biggest part of my garden the lawn

long story short its very uneven seems very compact and solid with
bumps, i
would say there is more weeds than grass to be honest
and alot of patches with nothing other than solid soil


is there anything i can do ?
what products can i get to weed it ? ( they have to be pet friendly i
have a cat )

any way to get some of the bumps out so its more mower friendly

there are 2 ways, dig the whole thing up & start anew or improve what you
have. My old man said I should rotovate my lawn & resow when we moved it. I
chose the other option. Another poster has outlined filling dips or under
cutting sod & raising or lower that way. I have done both. You can spray
weeds out with a broadleaf weed killer. It is somewhat noxious so use a
proper mask and keep puss indoors for a while if you use it. I did that a
few times to get the weeds under control in my lawn and now mainly hand weed
using a knife though I do roundup occasionly couch grass & the like as the
******* grows so secretly and establishes itself all over the place. I spent
many many spring & summer days on my hands & knees crowning weeds & couch
with a knife. Now I have bugger all weeds & can control them individually
and regular cutting. Try cutting your grass quite high, that will help crowd
out weeds & allow your grass to self seed if it is so inclined. Also try
mulching the clippings back into the turf rather than remove them. That will
slowly improve the soil structure which does help grow decent grass. If you
do use a spraying regime be aware it will take some time to get on top of
the weeds, about 2 years for me. After that however you can concetrate on
looking after the soil & the grass. I now use stuff all weed killers &
synthetic fertilisers & reckon on caring for the soil will produce decent
grass. My lawn is still bumpy in places, thats another slow process of
filling in holes as seasons permit.

rob

hi all,

i know nothing about gardening at all and i could use as much advice as i
can get about the biggest part of my garden the lawn

long story short its very uneven seems very compact and solid with bumps, i
would say there is more weeds than grass to be honest
and alot of patches with nothing other than solid soil


is there anything i can do ?
what products can i get to weed it ? ( they have to be pet friendly i have a cat )

any way to get some of the bumps out so its more mower friendly

regards
Lee

On 27 Jul, 19:58, lee5768 wrote:
long story short its very uneven seems very compact and solid with
bumps, i would say there is more weeds than grass to be honest
and alot of patches with nothing other than solid soil

any way to get some of the bumps out so its more mower friendly

the two traditional methods of levelling lawns are to add sand in the
low bits, or to lift a turf and dig away subsoil below a high bit.

Compacting can be broken up just by aerating with a fork, or if you
want to get clever with a hollow tine aerator . Brushing sand into
the holes is said to improve drainage.

Regular mowing (every week, twice a week if you can manage) will
change the balance toward grass and away from broad leaf weeds without
any other input - Grass has evolved to survive grazing, which is why
we use it to survive mowing.

Bare patches can be greened up by sieving in some compost, sand, and
grass seeds, and watering if the weather turns dry. Large weeds, like
dock and dandelion can have the roots lifted out whole with a suitable
tool. They will sell you a docking iron down the shops. My dad used
a bayonet, I use a screwdriver.

If you still want to tackle the weeds then go and have a look round
any garden centre. There are various "weed and feed" products. The
oldest is lawn sand, a mixture of sand and fairly gentle fertiliser
that will favour just the grass. Others are more and more complex -
some are herbicides sprayed on and the broad leaf plants take up
proportionately more and suffer more. Pet safety is usually discussed
on the packet.

If you find a proper independent garden centre, rather than some
discount DIY shed, there will be skilled and intelligent people who
can answer your questions and will have some knowledge of local
conditions and peculiarities.

"lee5768" wrote in message
...

hi all,

i know nothing about gardening at all and i could use as much advice as
i
can get about the biggest part of my garden the lawn

long story short its very uneven seems very compact and solid with
bumps, i
would say there is more weeds than grass to be honest
and alot of patches with nothing other than solid soil

In which case it sounds too far gone. I would have it rotavated levelled and
turfed.

On Jul 28, 10:44 am, "CWatters"
wrote:
"lee5768" wrote in message

...



hi all,

i know nothing about gardening at all and i could use as much advice as
i
can get about the biggest part of my garden the lawn

long story short its very uneven seems very compact and solid with
bumps, i
would say there is more weeds than grass to be honest
and alot of patches with nothing other than solid soil

In which case it sounds too far gone. I would have it rotavated levelled and
turfed.

Me too

"CWatters" wrote in message
...

"lee5768" wrote in message
...

hi all,

i know nothing about gardening at all and i could use as much advice as
i
can get about the biggest part of my garden the lawn

long story short its very uneven seems very compact and solid with
bumps, i
would say there is more weeds than grass to be honest
and alot of patches with nothing other than solid soil

In which case it sounds too far gone. I would have it rotavated levelled
and
turfed.



PS. If you go this route it's extreemly important to keep it well watered
for the first two weeks. It's quite possible for it to be ruined in a single
sunny afternoon so you may need the sprinlers on continuously to keep it
saturated. Otherwise the turf dries rapidly and shrinks leaving big gaps.

We had our new lawn done earlier in the year just before that sunny spell we
had. Its quite large and I had two sprinklers on it for the first 4 days
moving them every 45mins or so. That was hard to arrange and I missed an
afternoon - big mistake. In about 4 hours large gaps opened up in several
places where it dried. Lucky we had kept some turf and I was able to fill
them and get the watering going again. After about two weeks the turf had
fixed itself down enough for me to relax a bit. Now looks fantastic.

lee5768 wrote:

and alot of patches with nothing other than solid soil

For this one: someone on frj says he keeps a square metre of lawn far
from the house, where nobody really goes, and uses it as a sample zone.
Every time there is a bald patch on the main one he takes a graft from
that area, maybe it is possible in your case?


Greg

--
Ah, Lydia!
She was the most glorious creature under the sun.

No ficus = no spam