Front lawn problem...What to do?

[Rab]

We have a front garden that comprises a cracked concrete path and a patch of grass we call lawn.

This lawn is in reality 50% clover, 25% moss, 25% grass with wheat, dent-de-lion, daisy, etc.

So OH came back from the supermarket with lavender plants and dug a bed to plant them. Once she had a layer of grass turf out, we could see builders rubble instead of soil beneath.

Now I am thinking of getting rid of the whole lawn and replacing it with wildflower or meadow seeds to make a wildflower garden or else cottage flower seeds that need very little soil, like stocks, lupins and the like. We need to hire a rotivator I think, as removing even a row of trurf was backbreaking work.

All this to be a tempoary solution until we can have a paved frontage and just some pots of plants on it, maybe next year.

What do you think? Any experience of any aspects of this? Please help. Our front garden is embarrassing to our neighbours....

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=wildf ... 00&bih=768

[dewaltdisney]

This is usual to find a load of building rubble under frontages. It tends to drain the water well but this starves grass and the like and the more hardy weeds flourish. Even a rotovator can struggle with well compacted rubble soil like this. It is best left to the autumn and after a bit of rain when the ground is softer. I have to say that a well tended grass lawn will look better than a garden of wild flowers as inevitably there will be a load of weeds take hold as well. A bit of hard work to prepare the soil and a few bags of peat and slow release fertilizer mixed in will give new turf a chance. Autumn will give a good start and then the roots will grow down during the winter months giving a good lawn for next year.

DWD

[Notch1]

As DWD says.

In the autumn you could get a lawn scarifier to strip out the moss once youve killed it with iron sulphate.

The scarifier will get rid of thatch as well.

You could then top dress and over seed. Bets seed is probably a mix with dwarf ryegrass.