Hi,

Hoping someone might be able to give me some advice? We moved in to our house two years ago and completely re-landscaped the exterior. We have an unusual garden shape to the rear that is quite narrow and quite shaded (by the house, fencing and trees). The lawn area is about 8 m by 4 m south east facing.

I bought a "shade resistant" turf and spent a considerable amount of time preparing the ground - e.g digging out obstructions/stones and mixing in topsoil/peat with existing soil to create at least a 0.5 m zone of good quality compact soil upon which the turf I thought could establish.

I watered the lawn daily at first and kept everyone and thing off it for a season. It looked fantastic and there was no immediate trouble with the lawn establishing - it all grew very healthily and after a period of establishment I strimmed it rather than mowed it so to not cut it back too short. it lasted like this for one spring/summer.

By the next year the lawn had became very patchy all over. I attempted some restoration/re-seeding and added lawn feed/restorer but this failed to have an effect (I installed a net cover to keep birds off and watered). Now two years later it is looking terrible and in my mind beyond recovery.

The question I have is whether any of the more experienced people on here think it is my soil, the shaded environment or the trees. Is there a particular type of more resilient turf I could try ? Should I chop down the two trees and dig out the roots ? Did I do something wrong in the first place ? The trees immediately border the lawn - one is a deciduous about 8 m tall, with approx. 3 m crown (sorry I don't know what species it is) the other is a conifer about three metres with less than 1 m spread.

One way or another I am going to start again so any advice to ensure I get it right this time would be great. If required I can send some photos ?

I would be very grateful for any advice.