New Garden - Don't know where to start

deisedude

Moved into our house last year but our lawn is in terrible condition.

Uneven, patchy and full of weeds. Lawn gets waterlogged easily when it rains also.

Not looking to do anything fancy just get the grass looking normal but clueless as to where to start

Any tips greatly appreciated

beggars_bush

Detached house? Semi detached?

deisedude

beggars_bush wrote: »

Detached house? Semi detached?

Detached house in an estate

ax530

Say need some good top soil and reseeding, possibly some sand or pipes under to assist with drainage.
If any neighbors gardens looking well ask them what they did

JPup

What do you want the grass for primarily? Kids to play on or just for yourself to sit out on occasionally?

Without knowing any specifics, I’d say don’t worry too much about the grass.. Hopefully you’ll get some good tips for the lawn from others here, but in general people become obsessed with having it like a bowling green in my experience at the expense of the rest of the garden.

Try to think of it like an outdoor room. How can you create a vibe that you like? I’d be thinking of introducing some plants with a mix of heights and colours as well as some furniture. Don’t be afraid to paint your walls and fences. Blues, greens and browns always work well but you can be bold too.

deisedude

JPup wrote: »

What do you want the grass for primarily? Kids to play on or just for yourself to sit out on occasionally?

Without knowing any specifics, I’d say don’t worry too much about the grass.. Hopefully you’ll get some good tips for the lawn from others here, but in general people become obsessed with having it like a bowling green in my experience at the expense of the rest of the garden.

Try to think of it like an outdoor room. How can you create a vibe that you like? I’d be thinking of introducing some plants with a mix of heights and colours as well as some furniture. Don’t be afraid to paint your walls and fences. Blues, greens and browns always work well but you can be bold too.

Thanks for the advice. It will mainly be for the kids

JPup

I'm not sure how big the area is, so this might be prohibitively expensive, but there's a lot to be said for a patch of artificial grass for kids to play on in our climate. Otherwise the grass can get destroyed very quickly. Tends to happen in smaller city gardens more than larger spaces, so will depend on your plot. If you have nice planting around the edges it can still look well and once the kids are grown up you can go back to grass again if you like.

As above, artificial grass is sometimes the only solution for the type of garden you have, especially with small kids. My sister has exactly what you described and had it rotivated some drainage done and reseeded and kids still wrecked it.

Rocket99

Hi all,

In a similar boat myself. New house bought and the back garden is a swamp. I see most of the neighbours are putting down fake grass but I've no interest in that.
I'd rather have a go at it myself and see what I can do. Given its swamped and rocky-ish, this is my plan: (open to correction on any of these steps).
1. Pitch fork the soil and allow air into it and try dry it out by mid summer.
2. If no luck and its still a bog I'll dig a trench and install a French drain which will lead to a flower bed.
3. Buy a heap of top soil and level the ground.
4. Buy roll out grass.
5. Hope and pray it works.

Any advice welcomed!

kippy

deisedude wrote: »

Thanks for the advice. It will mainly be for the kids

If its 'for the kids' don't waste your time and money on trying to improve the grass.
Depending on their ages us it for a trampoline, swingset etc and even if you don't do that you'll find just keeping it cut will be sound.

deisedude

kippy wrote: »

If its 'for the kids' don't waste your time and money on trying to improve the grass.
Depending on their ages us it for a trampoline, swingset etc and even if you don't do that you'll find just keeping it cut will be sound.

I take your point but to be honest its in such rag order I have to do something because its like the gobi desert in parts and covered in weeds.

It was rushed on builders side before handover last year before the first lockdown came in place but we were just happy to get keys to the house so didn't push them on it

Treppen

kippy wrote: »

If its 'for the kids' don't waste your time and money on trying to improve the grass.
Depending on their ages us it for a trampoline, swingset etc and even if you don't do that you'll find just keeping it cut will be sound.

I dunno, I seeded a new lawn for kids and it worked out fine. They're not football mad though.

Before seeding stage i dug very deep trenches for potatoes, and did that for a few years, soil loosened up after that and I got tonnes of potatoes (sharps express are nice).

It was a wild garden for a while with attempts at fruit and veg everywhere, but when I got too busy with life for planting veg it was pretty straightforward to rake, remove stones (rinse and repeat) and seed. I used about 3 times recommended seed though as it was coming up thin.

gudede

Oh I have the same problem. My glass has more ups an downs than a rollercoaster. Got the Garden down 2 years ago.

Must order some top soil and mix it with sand. Then drag the thing to the back of the house. Can’t wait.

Plenty of grass seed. Friend of mine recommends putting seed down every year until it thickens up.

Wolftown

gudede wrote: »

Oh I have the same problem. My glass has more ups an downs than a rollercoaster. Got the Garden down 2 years ago.

Must order some top soil and mix it with sand. Then drag the thing to the back of the house. Can’t wait.

Plenty of grass seed. Friend of mine recommends putting seed down every year until it thickens up.

I've just done a job on own grass. The horticulturist in my local garden centre recommended a mix of peat moss and sand for the job, instead of top soil. Also put down a bag of recovery before applying the mix and seed.

Tec Diver

Our area has terrible drainage. I know a household nearby who put down artificial grass cause their kids play ball games a lot on it. Our don't but we do use the garden. After a few years of trying different things like forking the soil, sand etc and it not working, I'm going to put in french drains this summer. Two narrow trenches with rocks/gravel at the bottom, some of the drainage pipe on that and then the garden membrane on top before replacing the sods. There's nowhere I can really "send" the water, so I'll be digging a pit a the end of the garden for the pipes to drain into, which will be the lowest point, and putting in 20-30cm of rocks before filling it in. Hopefully that'll work!

okedoke

I was redoing my garden last year and removed all the grass. There was one spot that had terrible drainage, water would pool there for days after heavy rain. I dug down about 18 inches in that area and found a few inches thick layer of compacted clay. Dug that out and put in mix of gravel and topsoil. rolled out a new lawn and haven't had a problem since. If the drainage problem is localised within the garden, it could be an easy fix

Rocket99

okedoke wrote: »

I was redoing my garden last year and removed all the grass. There was one spot that had terrible drainage, water would pool there for days after heavy rain. I dug down about 18 inches in that area and found a few inches thick layer of compacted clay. Dug that out and put in mix of gravel and topsoil. rolled out a new lawn and haven't had a problem since. If the drainage problem is localised within the garden, it could be an easy fix

Good to hear that. Plenty of grunt work ahead of me

Mango Joe

kippy wrote: »

If its 'for the kids' don't waste your time and money on trying to improve the grass.
Depending on their ages us it for a trampoline, swingset etc and even if you don't do that you'll find just keeping it cut will be sound.

I think the OP is making the point that the kids would have to swim out to the trampoline half the time!!!

OP have a read through the below link - Once you're done you'd be able to give an international lecture series on lawn drainage!

https://www.buckinghamshirelandscapegardeners.com/news/how-to-drain-your-garden

deisedude

Thanks for all the advice so far

For first steps I'm going to scarify and aerate my lawn and put down new seed to improve the quality of the grass

I'll see what difference that makes before looking into more drastic drainage changes

Mango Joe

deisedude wrote: »

Thanks for all the advice so far

For first steps I'm going to scarify and aerate my lawn and put down new seed to improve the quality of the grass

I'll see what difference that makes before looking into more drastic drainage changes

I'd honestly worry you'll put time,money and effort into this and get zero results.

At a minimum I'd:

Assess at the garden to pick out the 2 or 3 or 4 problems areas where water pools.

Then (while keeping your grass sod to one side) dig out your 2 or 3 or 4 fair sized holes (2-3 feet deep at least) in these areas and back-fill them with coarse stone.

Level off the stone so you've a decent layer of topsoil and relay the grass sod you dug out earlier.

You'd do this easily on a Saturday afternoon yourself - Skip the gym as you'll already be well muscled and its pretty much guarantees immediate and meaningful results.

Below illustration shows a soak pit - Don't mind the french drain which is a level up again.....



PS Once your drainage is sorted some bit then ring around or check Done Deal and you'll get a couple of tonnes of premium, screened, perfect topsoil delivered for ~€100, once thats raked out and some grass seed is sprinkled out for the birds you're kind of done.