www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk

Hi all,

So far i've spend alot of time and money on my front garden as since moving into the house, i've never really touched it since it was used as a building site.

The borders are looking great however the lawn is looking rather desperate. I've been researching on the internet on the best way to fix this and it seems i need to scarify it (as there is quite a lot of thatch in the grass), Aerate it and then overseed it.

Normally i would just do what i did with the back garden and have the entire thing relayed however:

a) The drive way is getting extended at some point this year so a lot of the grass will be going.
b) I'm curious to see if i can bring it back to what it should look like.

Scarifier - The front lawn isn't that big to be honest however i have been looking into a titan electric Scarifier....would this make it so much easier? i could probably do it using a spring back rake but there is that much thatch i think i could be at it for a while.

Aerate - Does it matter what aerator i get? Some seem to pull plugs out of the soil where other just create holes...is there that much difference?

Hello r055c
If it were me I would do the drive first and then deal with whats left of the lawn otherwise your wasting your time money and effort trying to restore a lawn part of which is going under the new driveway.

Once I knew the size I would look at whether starting from scratch with new seed or turf was a better option than trying to revive the lawn. September is not a bad time to reseed or next spring. It might be quicker to kill the lawn off with glyphosate, rotovate or dig over, rake off any remaining root stones etc. tread, rake a fine tilth then either reseed or turf. You could hire a rotavator
https://www.hss.com/hire/p/light-duty-tiller there are bigger ones.

A scarifier is likely to be useful on a well established loan where too much thatch has being created. Feed water and sunshine is what is normally needed for a new loan.

When I had a lawn I just used a lawn rake (sprung tines) for scarifying and a lady sized fork for aerating ... and as the soil was a bit claggy brushed on some coarse sand to improve drainage.

Then thought sod it. I'll deck the area...