Trying to improve our lawn

When we moved into our house, getting on for two years ago now, both the back and front lawns were in a horrible state. They were full of dandelions and other weeds, as well as huge amounts of moss. They’re still not great, but with some work, they are slowly improving.

Twice a year, we use feed, weed and moss on our lawn. It’s recommended to do this between April and September, so we try to do it in April (or early May), and then in late August/September. I’ve so far bought the Qualcast version, mostly because it was on offer in Homebase! I tried to find it to provide a link, but even though I bought it earlier this week, it doesn't seem to be available anymore. It's very much like this one from Homebase though (please note that I haven't been paid or compensated for mentioning these companies). Like most similar products though, it comes with an applicator spout so you can just walk back and forth over the lawn and it sprinkles the mini pellet-type-things all over. Once you’ve applied it, you need to leave it (don’t mow the lawn for at least a few days) and if it doesn’t rain within two days, you are supposed to water the lawn so that the feed is activated. Luckily for me, it has rained within two days each time I have applied it, saving me a job! It rained a lot more than I needed today. I just keep telling myself it's good for the garden.

The idea is to then leave it to work for a couple of weeks, and the weeds and moss will slowly blacken off. It’s not very pretty, but at least it means it’s doing its job.

After a couple of weeks, out comes the scarifier (or a rake, if you don’t have a scarifier - we borrowed the machine from my in-laws, who have every garden tool/machine you could ever need). Back and forth I go, taking a break what seems like every minute to empty the bucket contraption that collects the moss the scarifier pulls out. It’s very effective, and has really helped to reduce the moss in our lawns. The downside is that because it pulls out so much moss and so many weeds, our lawns end up looking a little bare for quite a while, until the feed has really worked its magic. If the lawn is also a bit damp, it ends up looking like Glastonbury festival happened on it. 

Bare lawn...but it does grow back eventually.

In between doing that, I also use Round Up Gel on the dandelions as they are a complete pain to get rid of. I inevitably end up killing off a bit of grass around the dandelions, but it’s never too bad. The Round Up Gel is very effective, so it’s worth it.

I have to stress that I don’t ever expect to have a ‘perfect’ lawn, with no blemishes, no weeds, no moss, and perfect grass - unless we buy new turf, that just isn’t going to happen. To be honest, I’m quite okay with that. Our garden isn’t intended as a perfect show garden, but to be a happy, comfortable place - whilst I will continue to work to make it look nice and to remove the bits I don’t want, I also hope that it continues to look natural and not too neat!

I just applied the lawn treatment this week, so in a couple of weeks time the scarifier will be brought out of the garage, used, and then returned to the in-laws so that they can do their lawn!

Happy gardening,

Jenny