POPULAR
Lawn Mowing
Striped, healthy lawns with squared edges. From courtyard plots to country gardens.
FROM
£0per 100m²
+50% surcharge for overgrown first cuts
FULL RENOVATION
How to Renovate a Neglected Lawn
A lawn left untouched for a season or more usually has several problems stacked on top of each other: long, tangled grass, a thick thatch layer, moss colonising the weak spots, and compacted soil underneath from months without aeration. Fixing all of it in one visit is rarely possible, and trying to rushes the recovery.
The reliable order is a graduated first cut over two or three visits, then scarifying, aeration and overseeding once the grass is back to a manageable length.
ELawnCare handles neglected lawns through this combination: an overgrown first cut, priced at the standard mowing rate plus a 50% surcharge for that visit only, followed by renewal at £200 per 100m².
Written by Evaldas, owner of ELawnCare. Last reviewed .
WHAT IT COSTS
Prices for this work
HAND-TOOL
Lawn Renewal Package
Three-step hand restoration: scarification with a rake, hollow-tine aeration, and premium overseed. Add topdressing if you supply topsoil.
FROM
£0per 100m²
Best in March–April or September–October · ≤50m² min £150 · >300m² in-person quote
Garden Clean-up
Post-winter resets, end-of-tenancy clears, neglected gardens brought back to life.
Small£250 (half-day)
Medium£375 (full-day)
Largefrom £750 - quote
The graduated first cut
Cutting a long-neglected lawn straight down to a normal height in one pass shocks the grass and often kills it outright, since more than a third of the blade removed at once stresses the root system badly. The right approach is a high first cut, lowering the height gradually over two or three visits a week or so apart until the lawn is back to a normal cutting height.
This first stage alone often reveals how much of the lawn is salvageable grass versus how much is actually moss or weed that will need addressing separately.
Scarifying, aerating and overseeding
Once the grass is at a workable height, scarifying pulls out the thatch and dead moss that has built up, hollow-tine aeration relieves the compaction that a season of neglect always leaves behind, and overseeding fills the bare and thin patches that scarifying exposes.
September to October is the ideal window for this stage in Cambridgeshire. A neglected lawn tackled in autumn typically looks properly recovered by the following spring rather than the same season, so patience matters more than speed here.
COMMON QUESTIONS
Frequently asked questions
Cut it gradually over two or three visits rather than scalping it in one go, then scarify to remove thatch, aerate to relieve compaction, and overseed to fill gaps. September to October is the best window for the treatment stage.
The overgrown first cut carries a 50% surcharge on the standard mowing rate for that visit only. Renewal, covering scarifying, aeration and overseed, is £200 per 100m² with a £150 minimum on lawns of 50m² or under.
Expect a real difference by the second month after treatment, not the second week. New seed germinates in one to three weeks, but a genuinely recovered, thickened lawn usually takes until the following spring if the treatment happens in autumn.
Renovation at £200 per 100m² is usually cheaper than turfing from £9 per m² labour plus turf at cost, and works well if the lawn is thin rather than dead. Turf makes more sense for bare or genuinely destroyed ground.
FULLY INSURED
£2M public liability
CAMBRIDGE-BASED
CB1 to CB25 free callout
RELIABLE
Owner handles every visit
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