My grass has been neglected

castlerock

As you can see, my lawn is a bit of a mess.  It has been neglected for some time now, it has a lot of dead grass & a lot of moss going on.  I used Evergreen 4 in 1 a couple of weeks ago (not sure is that is a good brand?).  I have started to rake some of the moss but its never ending.

I'd love to have superb grass without moss, part of our lawn is shaded so I know that won't help. 

I have 3 pictures.  1st one is my lawn.  2nd & 3rd are some grass & lawn seed what I found in the garage, are these any good to use?

Any help would be appreciated :-)

Inglezinho

Can't see your pics, which is why I guess no-one has replied. However, I can guess. Get a fork, if you haven't already got one, and fork over the lawn lifting the turf slightly. Get some decent compost and sprinkle it over. Don't use any fertilizer or weedkiller yet. Sprinkle grass seed over any areas that are completely bare. Cover lightly with compost.Leave it for at least a month, unless it is very dry in which case water. Then mail me again: [email protected]

Inglezinho

This a badly run site

Mrs-B3-Southampton,-Hants

I've just read this query at 11.50pm because a) I've been busy and b) I don't usually log

on till the evening anyway.

No problem seeing the pics castlerock.

Having said all that I'm not able to advise you (sorry) cos I've given up calling mine a

lawn and refer to it as "the green stuff".

Dovefromabove

Pictures are fine 👍 @castlerock ... welcome to the forum 😊 

Grass seed does not stay viable for long ... check for dates on the pack. I would also check to see if the fertilizer pack has dates on., but Doff ok as a brand. 

Another problem is that Evergreen 80 contains a pre-emergent treatment to stop weed seeds germinating. Unfortunately it will remain effective for a while and this will also affect any grass seed used ... if you check the Evergreen80 pack it ought to have some info about this somewhere. 


Whatever’s got your goat @Inglezinho? Got out of bed the wrong side? The pics are fine.  It’s not unusual for a query posted later in the day to wait until next morning for a reply ... you’re in a different time zone to the rest of us. And what’s with the private email address 😲 you’d better ask the Mods to remove it!

Hostafan1

Inglezinho said:

This a badly run site

No need to log in if you're not happy with it.

debs64

I think this poster has put his or her private email address up before in other posts. Rather foolish. 

Dovefromabove

For those that don’t know, there is a secure private messaging facility (access at top right of the page). 

Fairygirl

Hi @castlerock -I'd agree that you need to be careful if you have out of date products, and also anything which inhibits weeds, also prevents grass germinating.
A good idea is to use a feed only initially, as that often rectifies some problems early on. You can then use a different product [weed and feed, or just a moss killer etc] later on, and it gives the weedkilling bit a better chance of working well. Unfortunately, if your ground isn't damp enough, granular feeds are tricky to use. If you have any seaweed feed, you could use that just now, to see if that helps in the short term.
Your grass possibly just needs moisture too. The recent hot dry weather has caused grass to grow, but often , it's then being cut too short. If you leave it a little longer when you cut, you may find that helps initially. 
If you wait until any weedkilling residue is no longer in the grass/ground, you can then sow some seed, if you can get new stuff. I think we all have to just do our best with plants of all kinds just now 

castlerock

Thanks for the replies guys. 

I've been giving my grass a good water every other day so the ground isn't too dry at the moment.
Hopefully I've not been over watering the grass, is this even possible??   




I've got 2 different comments from you guys so I'm not sure what to do first?

@Inglezinho
So if I need to use a fork & sprinkle compost, where am I sprinkling the compost?  Over the areas that are bare?? 

And why do I need to sprinkle more compost?

Do I not need to rake out any more moss?


@Fairygirl
What do you mean by use a feed only to start with.  What is a feed?  And can I use it straight away as I only used evergreen 2 weeks ago? 

I made the mistake of cutting my grass too short for its first cut of the year a couple of weeks ago. 


On my evergreen package it says re-seeding on bare patches should not be carried until 8 weeks after treatment.
The smart lawn seed package says use within the season bought(i bought this 2 years ago) so I guess I should bin that!!
There is no date on the DOFF lawn feed & Ive had that a while as well so I should probably bin that as well.


Apologies for all the questions BUT I just want to do this properly this time.

ps I HATE MOSS!!!!!!!!   

Dovefromabove

Our lawn developed a lot of moss over the winter ... wet and shade is what it likes best.  🙄 

We’ve used an electric lawn rake to get the worst of the moss out, aerated with a scarifier and overspend with fresh lawn seed and a light sprinkling of compost. Tread or roll the seed so it is in contact with the soil and water. Keep damp for the next 10 days and it should germinate. 

I think your watering may have encouraged the moss. I only water new lawns or freshly over seeded ones as above. 

Don’t mow your lawn too short ... keep to a medium setting ... this will strengthen the grass so it can out-compete the moss.