Lawn advice, please

[wendy]

Hi Folks.
My dogs aren't allowed on the lawn in the winter and are on our large patio seperated by a fence and a gate.
Yesterday we had a mass breakout. Because someone forgot to secure the gate. I won't say who HE was !!!!
Anyway what was a lawn looks like a ploughed field. As they have run round and round my Parrots bronze
We don't have a roller so any ideas, how I can get the grass [not a lawn now ] to an even state again ?
Thanks
Wendy

[stace]

Wendy we have lawn at the top part of the garden, its all very muddy at the moment, ours always recovers as it starts to dry out, some of the holes are a few inches deep where we have been walking up and down to the hens. Pete usually waits for it to dry, then throws soem grass seed down over it, always comes back. He gets paranoid about his lawn up this end, its always lush and green up here, i would wait until it drys out a bit before doing anything much

[AL37]

I will second that, try and fix it now and you will end up making thing worse.
When thing do dry out you can fill the holes with soil and reseed or if you have an area where you could could pinch some turf from then patch the holes with that.

[wendy]

Thanks guys.
They are not so much holes, As ruts where they have gone round and round. The grass is no longer a level area. I would think a roller would make it flat again, but as I said I don't have one.
I will seed once the better weather comes.
Wendy

[p.penn]

Oh Wendy - I can't believe that after you made it so lovely again post chicken damage.

I'm afraid that I'm not a good one to advise you as when I reseeded some of my lawn last year, I thought it was ok but it really is like the alps (which is no mean feat given the size of my lawn!!)

[mikey]

First its far to wet at present, if you have water laying on the lawn then work over the area with a garden fork pushing it in as far as it will go and working it back and forwards to open up the ground. Once the lawn/weather improves then look in your local garden centres for "lawn soil" its a fine grade compost that you work over the ruts/holes etc with the back of a garden rake untill level. Follow this up with reseeding. The rest of the lawn can then be given a spring/summer feed but be carefull as a lot of granular feeds are to strong to apply onto or near newly laid or seeded areas. Also be aware of feed which has moss killer in it as I have seen people loose their whole lawn after using this type of weed and feed due to high moss levels, they end up with a large black area instead.

[wendy]

Thanks Mike.
Wendy

[Homemade]

Agree with Mikey .
Frugal tip - If you have access to molehills then use those to fill in the ruts- ready sieved soil, old gardeners trick often used for making compost.
Also I wouldn't bother to feed the lawn as it just means that you have to cut it more often
If you don't have a roller then when the soil is dry enough, use your feet, Walk over and over the areas with a kind of shuffle, heels down- the penguin walk. It is important to make the soil firm before sowing.

[Davewbrown]

Hi Wendy,

In addition to the comments above...

Rolling it isn't really the answer as what it will do is compact the areas already flat and going straight over the areas that aren't.
The best option in my opinion is to make up a mixture of 3 parts soil to 1 part sharp sand. Then spread it roughly around the areas where the ruts are. Then, take a large post or heavy plank and tie a rope to each end and drag the post across the lawn. The post will rake the mixture across the lawn, filling in the ruts and making it even. press down the soil in the ruts and then repeat until you have a flat lawn. Then you can put some seed down on the bare patches and it should come back as good as new.

[wendy]

Thanks all of you. Hopefully I can rescue it ....again !!!
Wendy