# An English Lawn Journal 2020



## EnglishLawn (Apr 13, 2020)

Hi All, new member here, based in England near Birmingham. I used to be a greenkeeper for 4 years until the pull of an office job was too great to resist, however I've always kept my passion for a lush, level, green strip of green grass, real green grass, none of this AstroTurf nonsense!

I currently live with my girlfriend and her mother, whilst this isn't ideal, it's a nice house with a decent sized back garden and some grass at the front too. Out of fear of not wanting to get stuck in to a garden of sentimental value, the lawn maintenance has been little more than mowing and the occasional poke with a fork, however the last 6 months I've decided to gradually increase my gardening tool range and buy some soil, lawn feed and seed.

The back garden, picture attached, is roughly 80 m squared... I say roughly as I measured it by yards (ish) and converted it to meters, so I could be completely out! It has felt the force of 3 dogs on it for many years, quite undulated, thin grass in areas and generally never had much done to it, scarified and seeded last autumn but that's about it.

Front lawn consists of a small square lawn, probably around 25 sq m and a long thin side area a few meters across and about 8-10 meters long. Not massive but enough to work with.

My plans are to eventually level all grass areas and maintain them to a good standard, probably to "tv lawn" level, and buy a proper reel cylinder mower, currently leaning toward the Allett Classic 14L which I'm saving up for. I did some quite hardcore levelling on the right hand side of the back lawn which you can see in the pictures, and the front lawn, which I have no pictures of yet is currently used for a parking space, will be abused as soon as I move the car across the road, scalping, scarifying, soil and seed, I thought it already looks terrible after having a car on it, I can live with it being terrible for a while longer.

Looking forward to the journey and the process of the lawn care adventure!








Hopefully those pictures have uploaded, I'm aware the lawn needs edging and will be soon! I am thinking of extending the lawn slightly by making the path a single track and possibly extending further to the right as well, overall The back lawn isn't too bad, a bit thin and yellow in some areas but the journey begins!


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## jabopy (Nov 24, 2018)

A welcome EnglishLawn!!  Great forum you've joined. Looks like you have a lot of work ahead to keep you occupied over this uncertain period. Your only the odd 100 miles south from me, so conditions are probably similar. Will be keeping up with your journal. :thumbup:


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## EnglishLawn (Apr 13, 2020)

Thanks @jabopy

Yeah absolutely! Plenty to keep me going for the time being, we may be moving in a few years so at the moment I'm reluctant to do any major works to it, but I still want to get those lawns to a good enough standard, mainly green and stripy!

It does seem like a great forum so far, as a former greenkeeper I do miss working on grass and being around grass people so it's nice to find a good forum, I don't miss the early starts, weekend or bank holiday work though so I'll enjoy it more at my own pace, nice to be on one with a global reach too, although any fellow British lawnsmen would be beneficial for advice.


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## EnglishLawn (Apr 13, 2020)

Decided the front lawn needed bullying, I've been parking on it for a while which led to compaction and large bare areas. I thought it would look much better as a lawn instead of a car park space. Mowed as low as I could with the rotary and scarified as deep as possible with the Black and Decker lawn rake/scarifier, then levelled the tire ruts with some fresh soil and seed. Looking better already in my opinion! Both lawns to be fertilised soon!


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## Mark B (May 30, 2019)

That'll look nice when your done mate, get stuck in!&#128163;


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## EnglishLawn (Apr 13, 2020)

Mark B said:


> That'll look nice when your done mate, get stuck in!💣


That's the plan mate! I'm being a lot more aggressive with the front lawn because it looks terrible as it is so I don't mind if it looks worse for a while, I'd like to get to the point where people are asking me if it's real or not or stopping to admire it haha!


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## RCUK (Jul 16, 2018)

@EnglishLawn Welcome fellow Brit 

Always good to see more of us here. Good luck with the journey!


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## EnglishLawn (Apr 13, 2020)

@RCUK Thanks! Yeah I've seen a few Brits here but I think the majority appear to be across the pond, which is unusual considering it was a Brit who invented the lawnmower! 😂

And to you! Although your lawn appears to be looking strong!


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## EnglishLawn (Apr 13, 2020)

8 days after the front lawn job, the seed is slowly starting to show! Proud father of some baby grass! The ground is still rock hard and I probably should have aerated the area with a fork before seeding but that's on the list once the seed is properly established.


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## drob14 (Oct 16, 2019)

Nice!


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## EnglishLawn (Apr 13, 2020)

Update:
Been doing a fair amount to the back lawn, mainly feeding, topdressing and mowing, it's looking a bit better. Also gradually expanding the lawn on the right hand side so it goes all the way to the fence. Oh, and I bought an Allett Kensington 14K, wonderful piece of kit!

Front lawn is filled in, but is still ridiculously weedy and will need completely redoing I think!


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