Large lawn looking awful

It's so true. If you pay for a trained gardener, you will enjoy your garden, you won't have the expense of moving, you will improve the value of your house. Might improve your social life as friends will love to come for tea in the garden.
Interesting about the grass seed. I have an area under a magnolia tree and don't really want gravel but at the moment it's half gravel half grass and weeds. Can anyone suggest small plants that would work?

I am so glad that I was able to find a fully trained horticulturist/gardener who does our garden including the borders, tubs, lawns, fruit trees, veg plots, greenhouses etc. After he cut the forest of trees down he asked me what we wanted from our lawns and treated and reseeded it accordingly. He used a fine grass seed to resow as he told me the tough stuff would not be appropriate on our type of soil and would also need to be cut far more often than the fine grass. You will need to employ someone with the right training and experience so will need to have the confidence to ask searching questions, a professional will appreciate this.

Thanks for raising this, luckylegs. I am in exactly the same position - it is so hard to make all these decisions on your own, isn't it? I am now resolved to get a specialist firm in to take the lawn in hand, at least for a year. I do so love my garden, I don't want to move, so as long as I can afford to pay for help, that seems the best plan for now.

Thank you all.

The firm Green Thumb or similar should sort it out, coming several times a year to provide treatment.Elderly neighbours have this service and their lawn looks great.

Perhaps getting a gardener rather than someone who just cuts the grass might be an idea. Then he could look at the problem and sort it out. And make it a pleasure for you to walk or sit in the garden.

Geese leave a lot of slimy mess. Speak to anyone who went to the University of York (like DS).

We had Green Thumb for a couple of years which made an enormous difference to our weedy lawns, the weeds went and the grass looked lovely; however, I got worried about the effect it could have on wildlife so we decided to put up with the weeds instead.

We have someone to come in and mow them now and he does other jobs as well, such as hedge cutting and is worth his weight in gold. If you can find someone like that it could be worth staying, otherwise I would consider moving, which we may do.

Why don’t you just bite the bullet and move, it’s better to do it before you need to than leave it too late! Ps my lawn is pretty wet and looks awful.

We haven't mowed ours for months. It's too wet - and we're normally moaning about it being too dry! When the rain stops to pour most days, you could get your gardener to spike it and put some sand over the holes?

A flock of geese will graze the grass, look decorative and act as guard dogs.

Could you manage to cut the large one yourself more frequently? The best way to encourage grass to grow is to keep cutting it.

We haven't started mowing yet. It's January!

Has the man who cuts it been cutting it too short perhaps? Can't you ask him to rake it a bit and throw down some seed ? And buy some all purpose tough grass seed.
Or you could get him to plant a few shrubs in the patches or trees and make a creature of them.

I was just about to suggest quarterly lawn treatment, when you said you were now having it. We have a large lawn that got very mossy and weedy and regular treatment sorted the problem out.

There are a number of web sites that may be able to help. The best is probably the RHS site:
www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=421

Get someone in to at least cut the lawns.
I don't worry too much about the state of my lawn as long as there is some grass there and its not up to my knees.

Few lawns look good at this time of year .

*there!

Are their, overhanging trees, or do you get visits from foxes, badgers?
These would result in bald patches of grass die back. You’ve had the grass treated, so it’s unlikely to be a fungus condition.
Can you get your lawn mowing man to dig up the bald patches and lay squares of turf?
It’s very difficult to keep a pristine lawn, as I’m sure you know.