Lawn a patchy mess, ideas please.

The first thing you might think about is whether you actually enjoy having lawns, do you use them, enjoy sitting out on them, or are they more of a chore, keeping them at a certain level, which is more effort that is worth while in my opinion. So perhaps you could have a walk around your area , looking at gardens in your locality, and seeing what you like and what doesnt appeal to you. So then another point is do you want it all as a lawn at a same height or might you choose to have an area where you allow the grass to grown longer and perhaps have a variety of grasses to enjoy, which would also be better for the wildlife.Even if you decide you want a uniform height and style of lawn, might you make perhaps an island bed or a pond area to give a variety to your garden. With more variety, you will have a wider interest and perhaps try out some different plants. So rather than seeing this as a disaster, perhaps you could look around and see what sort of gardens you enjoy and perhaps move over a little to that. If you have some lovely gardens or a good gardening club close by , they would be the people to give you good advice as they will know and understand your soil and the ph, and this will affect what you grow well. I would take a couple of photos now of the garden as it is , and then when you have decided what to do and enjoyed restoring it to a place you like to be in you can look back at todays photos and be glad you had the chance to change things. Enjoy it

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Proper lawns are hard work and take a lot of maintenance. They also suffer in extremes of weather such as drought or too much rain.
Lawns rarely look good in winter, and below 11 degrees the grass doesn't grow.
Even the best lawns are subject to stress, weeds etc. I would wait until the grass begins to grow and maybe put down new seed, ensure it is draining properly and free of weeds and moss.
Not easy! But with the right conditions and care it could come up a treat come the summer.
The worst lawn is better than artificial grass in my opinion.

Come and look at our lawn! Every year at this time it is brown because of low rainfall. We also have a blue spruce and the needles kill a section of it. We just accept it. When I water the garden I give it a squirt but it won’t revive now until around May (our Autumn) . Not worth stressing over. I have given up with the weeds ( dandelions and the dreaded oxalis) at least they are hardy!

My saving grace is my robot mower. I keep the grass quite long in the dry spells but at other times the mower goes out every day. The grass then mulches the lawn. My lawn is looking pretty good at the moment with little effort.

Allsorts Apologies for butting in on your thread but dragonfly we brought a robot mower but DH sent it back as he said it wouldn't cut the long grass after the winter. Also we have flower borders around our lawn. DH said the robot would plough into the borders. Can you advise please?

I had to lay a guide wire around the boundary 10 centimetres in. This ensures the mower doesn’t fall over the edge onto the flower beds. If the grass looks to be getting long I just set it off even in the winter. It will cut grass up to 10cm long. I never have a problem.

If your lawn isn't terraced I would definitely look at the robot mowers. I think they have come on leaps and bounds.

Maybe try scarifying it before anything else and then a good mixed fertiliser and weed killer. Not sure but may need to be dry before scarifying, you can rent a machine for a day to do this which is much easer than any other way, or so I've found.

Maybe a small paved seating area and the rest a gravel or prarie garden with grasses, lavender, salvia, wildflowers etc have a look at Beth Chatto gardens fir inspiration.

Last year we mixed in clover with the lawn. It didn't really get much of a chance to grow before the Winter so we'll see this Summer whether it survived the cold. I planted it because every Summer the front of our house has become just a brown patch with some weeds. It greened up a bit over the Winter again but then just becomes brown again. Apparently the clover doesn't mind the drought so much so stays green. And flowers!

Wait until the growing season. I had mushrooms/toadstools growing in my grass this year. Treated it myself and it looked as if I had burned it all. But, even now I can see growth. Generally I scarify once a year, spread some granular feed and moss killer and that seems to do the trick. Won't say its bowling green standard but reasonable.

Try scattering some grass seed or we use a company called GreenThumb, they could advise you on the best course of action.

I have an electric scarifier which I use once, sometimes twice a year. After doing it in autumn I paid for someone to come to reseed and top dress the lawn, it looks lush again now.
Another good time to do it would be spring as it needs to be keep watered, while the seed takes.

Do you want to have your lawn all grass. We allow daisies dandelions and clover on ours so it is more like a meadow brings more pollinators in and can look quite nice in the flowering season.

That's what I was going to suggest, Edwardo - go wild! I love meadows and they're so much better for the environment and wild life

I think having a clover lawn is a great idea. It fixes nitrates into the ground and is drought tolerant and attracts pollinators and no longer any need for a lawn mower

My sister in law had bought a robot lawn mower. It dos not need a wire to stop it falling into the beds. It maps the area and then knows what iit is doing. you can use an app on your phoone to set it off. aother friend does this when he is in spain and sees that his home grass is ready. Off goes the robot.

www.which.co.uk/reviews/robot-lawn-mowers/article/what-is-a-robot-lawn-mower-aBgbY3g92GBs?source_code=911CSJ&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_content=generic&gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21462895144&gbraid=0AAAAADoAS41PezpX9iU0aD4RqIvd_Qhw_&gclid=Cj0KCQiAprLLBhCMARIsAEDhdPeR03KOz-4FFy_g9SC5mlZMzblHxfS8nDeI0qXbyhC5l0NQftWHUAEaAtRPEALw_wcB

My lawns are large so I have left a portion uncut to create a meadow. It has a curved edge clearly marked so people realise it's deliberate and not abandoned.
I love my meadow. The only thing I have sown in it is yellow rattle, a plant parasitic on grass so weakens the grass to make more room for the flowers.
However I m not too impressed with the yellow rattle 😄

I love that orchids grow and harebit (orange fox and cubs) and lots of plants previously hidden under the lawn.

Here's a closeup of the meadow with orchids in July. It's quite unlike a bought seed mix meadow but it's just what grows here.

That lawn pack stuff is pretty good . Ive used it and im no gardener . We do have a bitch dog which affects the grass . So I have to scatter seed every so often.

Let it grow. You’ll be doing the planet a favour.

Grammaretto

Here's a closeup of the meadow with orchids in July. It's quite unlike a bought seed mix meadow but it's just what grows here.

Lovely.

Our lawn is dreadful! But to be fair, it gets a great deal of traffic! We have to walk across it to get to the greenhouse, peg out the laundry, access one of five waterbutts, weed a border and access one side of a raised bed. Add to that the fact that we have chafer grubs and there’s no point in being precious about wanting a luscious green lawn here.