Lawn is a mess!!

Crazycatlady39

Help help help!

The lovely weather recently is fantastic, but it's also doing a great job of highlighting the mess of my garden. The lawn quality in particular is awful. Where do I start? I'll be spending the Easter weekend trying to bring it back to life...

Lots of thatch, moss, weeds. Grass quality is appalling. In fairness it's always been a tad boggy. A part of the problem (I think) is that in the past we haven't collected the grass cuttings but instead have left them on the grass for mulching and it's all clumped, and that's where I suspect that all the weeds and patches have come from. What length should the grass be for mulching? And, if we're mulching, should we be cutting at a particular time of day when the grass is dry?

I don't want to go down the road of reseeding as we have four gorgeous cats who's eyes will just light up when they see the creation of a new massive litter tray However, because of the cats and also our black lab, I don't use chemicals anywhere in the garden and don't want to start now.

Do I rake it all up, pull weeds by hand, feed it with an organic (non-chem) grass feed, or is there another way of doing it?

All help appreciated!

TIA

lottpaul

I think you've diagnosed a lot of the problems yourself. When people use expressions like "a tad boggy" I suspect it might pass for a paddy field at certain times of the year but therein lies your problem. That is the reason for your moss - the patches might be the fault of the black lab! (Leaving grass clippings on the lawn is never a good idea either unless you have a proper mulch setting on your mower)
Why is it boggy? Is it just compacted or is it heavy soil or is it an actual drainage area???? Unless you can get that problem sorted no amount of reseeding etc will have any lasting effect. If it's not too big an area you could try and spike and sand (aerate) it -- plenty of vids online-- but basically you punch holes in the soil and sweep coarse sand into them to allow the water drain away. If it is big you may need to install a drain but where will the water flow to? If your lawn is the lowest point then that would have no effect - you'd need somewhere for it to escape to.

Crazycatlady39

Thanks a million for your response, really appreciate it.

Mum actually mentioned sand as well so will definitely have look into that.

As for the grass mulcher, it's not a setting, I think he just leaves the box off the back (to be honest it drives me insane as it makes everywhere very messy, I've resigned myself to the fact that I'll have to start cutting the lawn I think!)

I think it's boggy just because of the quality of the soil, its not the lowest point. Soil is quite compacted and - now that you mention it - I do think it needs to be aerated in some way. We've been there a few years and have never done anything like that to it so certainly don't think it'll do any harm to try this.

Wish me luck!