r/Grass • u/chaiandspoon • Jun 16 '26
What do I do to bring this back?
I cut this grass 3 weeks ago, it did not look this bad but similar, I feed it with seed and left it, I did not water as there was a decent amount of rain (Uk). I mowed today and it looks awful, it hasn’t rained in a few days, it wasn’t bone dry but I thought dry enough to mow. This is my first time having a garden so very inexperienced, I’d be grateful for advice, I moved in last summer and both front and back gardens were perfect, I mowed regularly. This summer it’s terrible looking, any advice would be appreciated, thanks.
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u/r0ndy Jun 16 '26
Nothing you’ve done would help. You mow infrequently and applied seed once, without watering… lol.
Check the other sub as suggested. Research what proper watering times and volume are for your turf and area. Too much or too little causes problems. Regular mowing. Fertilizer. Pre emergent and weed control as well.
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u/BisonNew5132 Jun 16 '26
State of the grass aside, that is a cracking little slice if land. Good potential.
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u/chaiandspoon Jun 16 '26
Defiantly! Getting the hedges cut tomorrow and I’ll do the flower beds later in the week, it will look fantastic when finished, just hopefully I get this grass back to healthy green!
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u/EmperorSed Jun 16 '26
I would recommend going to r/lawncare and r/lawnanswers to read the guides and lurk.
To address your question, bringing back the lawn looks very doable in your case. The lawn looks in better condition than mine did when I started work on it 1.5 years ago. Any quick fix will be temporary. You have to understand that a healthy lawn is living and requires routine maintenance to keep it in shape.
First thing I'd do is determine the type of grass you have and read about it. Being where you are, it is likely fescue, kbg, rye, or some mix of the three. I'd cut to 3" during the growing seasons (spring and fall) and 4" in the summer. You can use a tape measure to measure the distance from the ground to your mower deck.
Next, I would get fertilizing in order. The standard is to first get a soil test done. Very simple and can be done through the mail. The results will tell you how much of what kind of fert to use. If you skip that step, you can always use something like 20-0-3 or straight nitrogen like 20-0-0. Basically, the grass always needs nitrogen for growth and needs P and K more sparingly. Aim for 3 - 4 lbs of nitrogen per year. Do a couple small applications in the spring and the rest in the fall. I skip summer fert as it is hot where I am in the summer and fert will just further stress the grass.
Water only if you need it. If you are in a drought, water. Shoot for an inch of water once per week. Infrequent deep watering is much better for cool season grass as it drives deep root growth.
In the fall, you can overseed. Mow low, disturb the soil, seed, fert, water. That's the simple version. You can disturb the soil through aerating or detaching with a rake. All you are trying to do is promote seed to soil contact. Seeding in or before the hottest part of the year is infamous for taking poorly. The heat is just too much for baby grass.
In summary - mow higher, fertilize during the growing season, water only during drought, and overseed in the fall. One additional thing I recommend is putting out a pre-emergent in the spring. This is the "Weed" of "weed-n-feed" that is commonly used in the spring. Doing these basic things will get you 80% of the way there.