OVERSEEDING LAWNS AT THE BEGINNING OF MAY IN WEST YORKSHIRE

My garden is at about 860ft above sea level on the Pennines of West Yorkshire and I have been watching out for an opportune moment to overseed my lawn. I do it every year. I always listen to what the experts (RHS) have to say, and there are a lot of expert websites out there, but then make my own decisions. The weather has been mercurial. We have had dry spells and wet downpours. We have had cloudy cold spells and spells of glorious sunshine and warmth, like in just the last couple of days, BUT today it is cloudy, mild, and very lightly raining. I decided that now was the time as the light rain will gently send seed down into the grass and onto the soil without washing seed down my sloping garden onto the patio.

I know some of you will be thinking but what about scarifying first, moss removal, top dressing the grass, and you will be right to wonder but I have my own style of gardening and the less work is involved the better. I get very little moss, only at the very edges, and I don't feel it needs anything else at this point. My grass grows on a shallow area of topsoil over rocky sandstone and I am amazed it grows at all. But it does.

As you can see, my lawn is tiny. In reality, it is, for me, a wide path over which I can hang my washing on a long line without resorting to one of those rotary clothes dryers which I don't like. I made the lawn even smaller a couple of weeks ago as, although grass does have its uses regarding wildlife and the environment and so on, so do plants, especially flowering ones.

Grass is very forgiving, there is no denying that, but it seems to me that there is a difference between having a grass area in your garden and having, what I would call, a lawn. I would love a wildflower lawn but it isn't practical for me.

Years ago, when I was having a new fence installed, with gravel boards and concrete posts, and slot-in shadow-box fencing, the lawn appeared to be all but destroyed and yet within three months it had recovered and was beautiful in comparison. A lawn resurrection!

Have a quick look. 👇 All photos taken in 2017