Can I rescue this long-neglected lawn?
Last November we moved in to a house with about ⅓ acre / 1,500 sqm / 15,000 sqft of lawn in the suburbs of London. House was bought from the estate of a man in his nineties, and it was apparent when we moved in that it hadn't been mown the previous summer. Don't have a clear "before" pic so here's some incidental ones of the back, and a closer up shot (deer not relevant)
I have no desire to keep all of that space as lawn, and plan to seed some of it as wildflower meadow, some as vegetable beds, and build a garage - but some is being kept as conventional lawn. Didn't want to try and fix it over the winter but with the nice weather over the last week we got a strimmer, lawnmower, borrowed a scarifier and got started. My intention was to strim, mow high, mow low, scarify/dethatch, aerate, and seed, over the next few weeks.
However, having got as far as mowing on maximum height (pic as of this morning), I'm starting to realise quite how deep the moss and thatch goes. I have a feeling that whilst it was mown a year or so ago, it hasn't been properly cared for / raked / dethatched etc. for many years. There's over an inch of thatch and moss in some areas, and I'm skeptical there'll be anything left alive if I go deep enough to take that out. We tested the scarifier on a section that's getting built over anyway and this was the result. I'm starting to wonder if the better approach in the long term would be to completely remove the current lawn and reseed it from bare earth.
Thoughts?
Posted Mar 24, 2022, 9:53 AM UTC
Lol. You had me confused for a moment. In the states, we call a "scarifier" a "power rake". Anyhow, to address the lawn, it will be fine" Power rakes use flail blades, which are very aggressive. They are generally used only for full blown lawn renovations, which means you'll want to put down seed. Yes, you could wait for the remaining turf to send out tillers and fill in, but you would need to put down pre-emergent to prevent invasive species from taking advantage of the thinned out turf. You will get better and quicker results from seed. I have no clue what turf varieties are used in the UK, but I'm sure you could pull up a small clump and bring it into a lawn mower dealership, and they could not only tell you what it is, but also sell you high quality seed.
Instead of aerating, I recommend renting a slit seeder. It uses a verticutting blade to slice the ground and push the seed into it. Seed to soil contact is the name of the game, so you'll get the best results from a verticutter. Once germination begins, remember to cut the existing turf so low that you are almost scalping it. This helps the new grass from competing for light with the old grass.