Talkback: How to maintain your lawn

Do you need to do this every year? It's expensive!  

I paid £20 for a Qualcast Electric scarifier from Ebay.  It's brilliant, and you should see the huge piles of moss I'm getting out of the lawn, and how the grass has perked up in just three days.  The settings vary from a leaf collector where the wheel and tines are higher to scarification where the tines scratch into the soil, approx 2 mm.  I've been very tough on this lawn, the moss is thick, and I've worked with the lowest setting and still it's not getting through the moss for three or four runs in some parts.

I've ordered some Eco Lawn Seed which contains microclover and I'm hoping will a) feed the lawn, b) outcompete the moss, and c) help it withstand the rigours of a young and huge Bernese Mountain dog!  I'll oversow with that and next year when it's well established I shouldn't be scrarifying two or three wheelie bins full of moss and thatch! 

As the grass wasn't growing (thanks to thatch, moss and said dog!) I haven't even serviced the mower yet! 

Evening Michael

For me it's a no-brainer......I would turn it over trenching in the grass upside down.  Rotovating makes a mess and simply spreads everything in top few inches.

Ideally you would wait until September but if you're like me you may want to do it now.  Turn it over, walk all over it, rake, firm again and rake again.  Repeated raking is important for levels, etc.  A week or so before seed sowing rake in a general fertiliser. You will need to water both seed and young grass for the summer.

Autumn time allows you more time though so patience is best.