A Lawn Restoration in Belsize Park

The brief

A beautifully established Belsize Park garden with tall clipped yew hedges, pleached hornbeams and a garden studio at the far end. The bones of the space were immaculate. The lawn running down the middle of it was not. Bare patches, moss, thatch and compaction had left it thinner and thinner each year, and it had started to let the whole garden down.

Our approach

A full lawn restoration rather than a strip-out and re-turf. Established gardens like this reward the slower approach: get the soil right, seed with the right blend for the site, and the lawn comes back stronger and blends into everything around it rather than sitting on top like a patch.

The build

Assessment and soil work first: aeration and scarification to lift out the moss and thatch, then levelling and fresh topsoil to correct the surface. Re-seeded with a grass blend chosen for the light conditions and use of the space, then looked after through establishment with careful watering and feeding until the sward had knitted together and could be mown properly. The photos across the project show the same view at each stage: bare, seeded, establishing, and finally striped.

The result

A lawn back to the standard of the garden it sits in. Green from edge to edge, striped cleanly, and set up to hold that condition through the seasons ahead.