Hi - I'm new here - I've tried the FAQ, but it's a bit vague on details.

I must admit I'm not much of a gardener and my lawn is a mess.

I've run the mower over it about once a month for the last ten years, but
that's all.

As I see it there's two main problems:

Firstly it's as uneven as an uneven thing. There's dips, hollows, even
almost mini-hills.
Secondly it's full of weeds and dandelions, which seem resistant to the lawn
food/weed killer combination I got from Wyevale.

Any suggestions gratefully received.



*** Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com ***

Forget the lawn.

Dig it up.

Grow proper plants instead.

My husband is a lawn man but I am more a flower girl so we have this little
battle where I keep nibbling away at the edges and he keeps mowing the heads
off the flowers too close to the grass!

Sue W.

--
Derby, England.

Don't try to email me using "REPLY" as the email address is NoSpam. Our
email address is "thewoodies2 at ntlworld dot com"


"Manky Badger" <youmust [at] bejoking.com> wrote in message
news:44703d9c$0$24334$88260bb3 [at] free.teranews.com...
> Hi - I'm new here - I've tried the FAQ, but it's a bit vague on details.
>
> I must admit I'm not much of a gardener and my lawn is a mess.
>
> I've run the mower over it about once a month for the last ten years, but
> that's all.
>
> As I see it there's two main problems:
>
> Firstly it's as uneven as an uneven thing. There's dips, hollows, even
> almost mini-hills.
> Secondly it's full of weeds and dandelions, which seem resistant to the
> lawn food/weed killer combination I got from Wyevale.
>
> Any suggestions gratefully received.
>
>
> *** Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com ***

"Sue" <nospam [at] nospam.com> wrote in message
news:tx%bg.15539$z%.12161 [at] newsfe5-win.ntli.net...
> Forget the lawn.
>
> Dig it up.
>
> Grow proper plants instead.
>
> My husband is a lawn man but I am more a flower girl so we have this
> little battle where I keep nibbling away at the edges and he keeps mowing
> the heads off the flowers too close to the grass!
>

Isn't that "high maintenance" ?



*** Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com ***

"Sue" <nospam [at] nospam.com> wrote
> Forget the lawn.
>
> Dig it up.
>
> Grow proper plants instead.
>
> My husband is a lawn man but I am more a flower girl so we have this
> little battle where I keep nibbling away at the edges and he keeps
> mowing the heads off the flowers too close to the grass!

I've seen some of your recent posts and for a moment thought 'hang on, I
didn't write one on that thread did I?' But this one I could well have
written. It's like that in our garden too! If it was solely up to me
we'd get rid of grass and have a clover lawn (and bigger borders) :)

--
Sue (the E Anglian one)

Manky Badger wrote:
> Hi - I'm new here - I've tried the FAQ, but it's a bit vague on details.
>
> I must admit I'm not much of a gardener and my lawn is a mess.
>
> I've run the mower over it about once a month for the last ten years, but
> that's all.
>
> As I see it there's two main problems:
>
> Firstly it's as uneven as an uneven thing. There's dips, hollows, even
> almost mini-hills.
> Secondly it's full of weeds and dandelions, which seem resistant to the lawn
> food/weed killer combination I got from Wyevale.
>
> Any suggestions gratefully received.
>
Leaving aside Sue's radical approach -- which is only good if you're a
seriously keen gardener -- the first thing to do is to grit your
dentures and start cutting the grass more often. Sorry about that. Once
a week is the minimum, really: some real lawnloons do it every blasted
_day_. Leaving the grass uncut encourages it to grow up, not out, so
making room for weeds to flourish.

The weed and feed stuff will work in the end, but you have to follow
the instructions exactly, and do it more than once.

Cure bumps by slicing them off, digging a bit of soil out, and treading
the grassy slice back on. Water till it's fixed itself. Hollows are
harder: brush in half an inch (no more) of sand or compost, or even
some of the soil from the bumps. When the grass has grown through
enough to look as though you've never done anything, do it again --
ideally you do this only once a year, but twice should be OK. For
quicker results, skim the turf off the hollow, fill it up with soil and
proceed as for bumps.

No need to worry if your lawn isn't perfectly flat, though, unless you
want to play clock golf. Nothing wrong with a few weeds, either, if you
ask me; in fact, daisies are essential, and small white clover looks
better in a dry spell than brown grass.

--
Mike.

"Mike Lyle" <mike_lyle_uk [at] yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1148243460.955171.82140 [at] u72g2000cwu.googlegroups.com...
>
> Manky Badger wrote:
>> Hi - I'm new here - I've tried the FAQ, but it's a bit vague on details.
>>
>> I must admit I'm not much of a gardener and my lawn is a mess.
>>
>> I've run the mower over it about once a month for the last ten years, but
>> that's all.
>>
>> As I see it there's two main problems:
>>
>> Firstly it's as uneven as an uneven thing. There's dips, hollows, even
>> almost mini-hills.
>> Secondly it's full of weeds and dandelions, which seem resistant to the
>> lawn
>> food/weed killer combination I got from Wyevale.
>>
>> Any suggestions gratefully received.
>>
> Leaving aside Sue's radical approach -- which is only good if you're a
> seriously keen gardener -- the first thing to do is to grit your
> dentures and start cutting the grass more often. Sorry about that. Once
> a week is the minimum, really: some real lawnloons do it every blasted
> _day_. Leaving the grass uncut encourages it to grow up, not out, so
> making room for weeds to flourish.
>
> The weed and feed stuff will work in the end, but you have to follow
> the instructions exactly, and do it more than once.
>
> Cure bumps by slicing them off, digging a bit of soil out, and treading
> the grassy slice back on. Water till it's fixed itself. Hollows are
> harder: brush in half an inch (no more) of sand or compost, or even
> some of the soil from the bumps. When the grass has grown through
> enough to look as though you've never done anything, do it again --
> ideally you do this only once a year, but twice should be OK. For
> quicker results, skim the turf off the hollow, fill it up with soil and
> proceed as for bumps.
>
> No need to worry if your lawn isn't perfectly flat, though, unless you
> want to play clock golf. Nothing wrong with a few weeds, either, if you
> ask me; in fact, daisies are essential, and small white clover looks
> better in a dry spell than brown grass.


cheers for that :o)

Presumably I can get sand from the garden centre?





*** Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com ***

Manky Badger Wrote:
> Hi - I'm new here - I've tried the FAQ, but it's a bit vague on
> details.
>
> I must admit I'm not much of a gardener and my lawn is a mess.
>
> I've run the mower over it about once a month for the last ten years,
> but
> that's all.
>
> As I see it there's two main problems:
>
> Firstly it's as uneven as an uneven thing. There's dips, hollows, even
> almost mini-hills.
> Secondly it's full of weeds and dandelions, which seem resistant to the
> lawn
> food/weed killer combination I got from Wyevale.
>
> Any suggestions gratefully received.
>
>
>
> *** Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com ***


You might find what you want in here;

http://tinyurl.com/r83xx


--
Scotia

"Mike Lyle" <mike_lyle_uk [at] yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1148243460.955171.82140 [at] u72g2000cwu.googlegroups.com...
>
> Manky Badger wrote:
> > Hi - I'm new here - I've tried the FAQ, but it's a bit vague on details.
> >
> > I must admit I'm not much of a gardener and my lawn is a mess.
> >
> > I've run the mower over it about once a month for the last ten years,
but
> > that's all.
> >
> > As I see it there's two main problems:
> >
> > Firstly it's as uneven as an uneven thing. There's dips, hollows, even
> > almost mini-hills.
> > Secondly it's full of weeds and dandelions, which seem resistant to the
lawn
> > food/weed killer combination I got from Wyevale.
> >
> > Any suggestions gratefully received.
> >
> Leaving aside Sue's radical approach -- which is only good if you're a
> seriously keen gardener -- the first thing to do is to grit your
> dentures and start cutting the grass more often. Sorry about that. Once
> a week is the minimum, really: some real lawnloons do it every blasted
> _day_. Leaving the grass uncut encourages it to grow up, not out, so
> making room for weeds to flourish.
>
> The weed and feed stuff will work in the end, but you have to follow
> the instructions exactly, and do it more than once.
>
> Cure bumps by slicing them off, digging a bit of soil out, and treading
> the grassy slice back on. Water till it's fixed itself. Hollows are
> harder: brush in half an inch (no more) of sand or compost, or even
> some of the soil from the bumps. When the grass has grown through
> enough to look as though you've never done anything, do it again --
> ideally you do this only once a year, but twice should be OK. For
> quicker results, skim the turf off the hollow, fill it up with soil and
> proceed as for bumps.
>
> No need to worry if your lawn isn't perfectly flat, though, unless you
> want to play clock golf. Nothing wrong with a few weeds, either, if you
> ask me; in fact, daisies are essential, and small white clover looks
> better in a dry spell than brown grass.

the other thing I would add is have patience, heaps of it and look at your
lawn as a 2-5 year project. Thats what I am doing anyway.

rob

"Mike Lyle" <mike_lyle_uk [at] yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1148243460.955171.82140 [at] u72g2000cwu.googlegroups.com...
>
>>
> Leaving aside Sue's radical approach -- which is only good if you're a
> seriously keen gardener -- the first thing to do is to grit your
> dentures and start cutting the grass more often. Sorry about that. Once
> a week is the minimum, really: some real lawnloons do it every blasted
> _day_. Leaving the grass uncut encourages it to grow up, not out, so
> making room for weeds to flourish.
>
> The weed and feed stuff will work in the end, but you have to follow
> the instructions exactly, and do it more than once.
>
> Cure bumps by slicing them off, digging a bit of soil out, and treading
> the grassy slice back on. Water till it's fixed itself. Hollows are
> harder: brush in half an inch (no more) of sand or compost, or even
> some of the soil from the bumps. When the grass has grown through
> enough to look as though you've never done anything, do it again --
> ideally you do this only once a year, but twice should be OK. For
> quicker results, skim the turf off the hollow, fill it up with soil and
> proceed as for bumps.
>
> No need to worry if your lawn isn't perfectly flat, though, unless you
> want to play clock golf. Nothing wrong with a few weeds, either, if you
> ask me; in fact, daisies are essential, and small white clover looks
> better in a dry spell than brown grass.
>
> --
> Mike.
>

I would have thought that after 10 years of mowing once a month, and no
feeding there would only be coarse grasses left in it. Would it not be less
work in the long run to start again? A bit of hard work getting a nice flat
seed bed now, and by next year there would be a decent lawn (or turf, of
course, if the budget runs to it). But this is only a question, not a
suggestion.

Mind you, if, in the long run, you don't want to mow every week, or more
often, I'd seriously think about growing paving slabs.

--
Lyndon

In message <4470c698$0$24284$88260bb3 [at] free.teranews.com>, Manky Badger
<youmust [at] bejoking.com> writes
>
>"Mike Lyle" <mike_lyle_uk [at] yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
>news:1148243460.955171.82140 [at] u72g2000cwu.googlegroups.com...
>>
>> Manky Badger wrote:
>>> Hi - I'm new here - I've tried the FAQ, but it's a bit vague on details.
>>>
>>> I must admit I'm not much of a gardener and my lawn is a mess.
>>>
>>> I've run the mower over it about once a month for the last ten years, but
>>> that's all.
>>>
>>> As I see it there's two main problems:
>>>
>>> Firstly it's as uneven as an uneven thing. There's dips, hollows, even
>>> almost mini-hills.
>>> Secondly it's full of weeds and dandelions, which seem resistant to the
>>> lawn
>>> food/weed killer combination I got from Wyevale.
>>>
>>> Any suggestions gratefully received.
>>>
>> Leaving aside Sue's radical approach -- which is only good if you're a
>> seriously keen gardener -- the first thing to do is to grit your
>> dentures and start cutting the grass more often. Sorry about that. Once
>> a week is the minimum, really: some real lawnloons do it every blasted
>> _day_. Leaving the grass uncut encourages it to grow up, not out, so
>> making room for weeds to flourish.
>>
>> The weed and feed stuff will work in the end, but you have to follow
>> the instructions exactly, and do it more than once.
>>
>> Cure bumps by slicing them off, digging a bit of soil out, and treading
>> the grassy slice back on. Water till it's fixed itself. Hollows are
>> harder: brush in half an inch (no more) of sand or compost, or even
>> some of the soil from the bumps. When the grass has grown through
>> enough to look as though you've never done anything, do it again --
>> ideally you do this only once a year, but twice should be OK. For
>> quicker results, skim the turf off the hollow, fill it up with soil and
>> proceed as for bumps.
>>
>> No need to worry if your lawn isn't perfectly flat, though, unless you
>> want to play clock golf. Nothing wrong with a few weeds, either, if you
>> ask me; in fact, daisies are essential, and small white clover looks
>> better in a dry spell than brown grass.
>
>
>cheers for that :o)
>
>Presumably I can get sand from the garden centre?
>
>
>
>
>
>*** Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com ***
Yes but get horticultural sand not builders sand.
To get rid of the weeds use a liquid lawn weed killer - a couple of
application will see off most of them, then a hand held spray for spot
weeding will suffice.
Also one of the biggest problem with lawns is cutting the grass too
short - keep the cut a good inch or more especially if the surface is
uneven.
--
hugh
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