Complete novice ruining new lawn

mr197

Hello,

I’d really appreciate some thoughts on how I might avoid destroying my new lawn.

I’m completely new to gardening and have moved to a new house for growing family. About six weeks ago we had a lawn laid. It has been raining. A lot. Nobody walked on the lawn for two weeks and we have rarely after that. The grass is very long now and the garden is very wet.

We have had a lot of trees deposit leaves in one spot.

I have tried to clear some leaves (with a brush). Where the leaves were sitting, it’s basically just dirt now. Where I’ve stepped, the grass has died.

There are still a lot of leaves on the lawn but I don’t know what to do. Do I just pray for less rain and do nothing. Should I mow it (wet) or will walking on it do more damage? Should it feed it, and if so, what?

It’s not a big garden, does get some sun (not at the moment).

I have no clue; I’d love my son to have a garden to play in when it warms up.

Any advice appreciated.

Thank you.

mr197

Thank you.

Only advice was don’t walk on it for a few weeks, and make sure it was well watered. The recent rain more than took care of that!

I will check out @glasgowdan’s posts/replies. Thanks again.

glasgowdan

I'd try and get the leaves off with a rake. It's hard to know exactly what the issues are without knowing what prep was done and so on. 

Is it so long it's lying flopped over?

mr197

glasgowdan said:

I'd try and get the leaves off with a rake. It's hard to know exactly what the issues are without knowing what prep was done and so on. 

Is it so long it's lying flopped over?

Thank you.  Prep-wise, the garden was converted from stones and ponds; everything was dug up and removed, and some topsoil put down (I don't think very deep in places, it was primarily to level the lawn I believe).

Turf was laid by the same team and nobody walked on it for two weeks.  That was it.  I have done nothing to it since, bar my trying to get some leaves up with a brush.

It is getting close to being flopped over, and certainly the grass I used a brush is bent over.  Where I have stepped on the grass, it's crushed and you can see soil through.

I've attached some pictures of what's happening:

1. The state of untouched grass - almost beginning to flop over, if not already.
2. The worst corner - still covered in leaves, but not as bad as it was, and looks like some of the grass has died/disappeared beneath.
3. Patches of the garden, I believe where I have stepped, that has damaged the grass.
4. A view from above showing nearly the whole garden.  You can see where I have tried to brush up the leaves.

I'll get a rake at the very least.

Hostafan1

I know we've had a lot of rain, but it looks waterlogged. Might just be a trick of the photos though.

Loxley

It does look waterlogged and squishy. I wonder if where you have stepped has just brought the mud to the surface or made little puddles that filled with mud. That doesn't mean the grass is dead though, and it could well come back fine in the spring.

If it's staying sodden wet even when the weather is dry, you might have a drainage problem - you shouldn't attempt to rectify until the soil has dried out though or you'll just make it a muddy mess.

Loxley

In terms of raking leaves, could you stand at the edge and lean over rather than walking on the grass?

mr197

WillDB said:

In terms of raking leaves, could you stand at the edge and lean over rather than walking on the grass?

That seems like a good plan, thank you.

mr197

WillDB said:

It does look waterlogged and squishy. I wonder if where you have stepped has just brought the mud to the surface or made little puddles that filled with mud. That doesn't mean the grass is dead though, and it could well come back fine in the spring.

If it's staying sodden wet even when the weather is dry, you might have a drainage problem - you shouldn't attempt to rectify until the soil has dried out though or you'll just make it a muddy mess.

Thank you.  It's definitely squishy; hopefully it will come back as you say.  Raking seems the only thing to be done at the moment, without walking on it.

Hostafan1

If it was my garden, I'd lose the "lawn" altogether and have more planting and a central paved, woodchipped, gravel area in the middle

mr197

Hazel-1 said:

Hello, that looks to be quite a damp dark corner with the overhanging plants and against the wall. I wouldn’t have had  the grass that close to the wall, it will make mowing it very difficult and then cutting the edges straight. As you say, get a rake, and lean over as far as you can to rake up as many leaves as you can. If necessary, a small plank across the grass may help a little in getting into the corner as much as possible. We have a Weigela  shrub( which previous owners have left to grow into quite a big tree structure now) that is in a dampish dark corner of the corner, and that is shedding like crazy now. However, across the corner, where it is, we have laid gravel so it protects the plants from getting too damp, and with a brush, we can quite easily brush up the many leaves. Tedious job though. 
I wonder what the drainage is like, too, on the grass? I’m no expert on grass but I wonder if aerating would help a little? Perhaps @glasgowdan  could offer some advice there. It’s perhaps a little late to do that? However, I wouldn’t risk. mowing it, our grass is like yours, very sodden and wet and squishy. You may tear up the grass roots if you attempted that. Perhaps some shears to just trim the edges to make it look a little neater  there? Most grass is pretty resilient over winter, don’t worry too much.Good luck!

Thank you.  I'll see how far I can lean over, and even jury-rig an extension to a rake to see if I can get to that corner without walking on the lawn.

If there is nothing to be done but rake, so be it.  We could do something along that corner once we get to the spring/summer and see what happens.

I hope it's not a serious drainage problem; would explain why the previous owners didn't have a lawn.

Very happy to live with an untidy garden at this time of year; just need it ready for a little one when the sun comes back.