Question
Hi,
Looking at purchasing a house in Halifax NS, the lot is a bit of a left to right slop, it appears the current owner has dug a chain of french drains along the side, and back of the property. There are signs of poor drainage in the lawn, poor grass quality, moss etc.
2 questions, how can I cover the existing drains with soil, seed etc.
Second, what can I do to bring the current lawn back to a nice rich green healthy lawn like my present property.
thanks
Peter

Answer
I am reluctant to address this because it appears you do have a serious drainage issue, bad enough for the previous owners to address is as best they could.  Bring in a local expert to do an on site evaluation and give you some good advice on how to handle it.  This is impossible to do properly with the setup we have here, unfortunately, although I always have opinions about things that are none of my business.

I would however like to address the health of your Lawn, which should be deal with AFTER you solve your drainage issues.

All great Lawns start with a Soil test.  I don't know where you do this i Canada, but it should be done.  I'll look into it for you if you need help with that.  But start in the phone book and see if you have a Soil Bureau or Agricultural station that supports taxpayers with Soil questions.

Consider that where traditional chemical fertilizers deliver a single chemical feeding with long stretches of nothing in between, an organic fertilizer actually feeds microbes in your Soil, who then break down the nutrients and deliver them long term, in low doses, for a ver long time.  The food chain down there starts at the bottom with these microbes and works its way up to Earthworms and insects and ants, etc.  That means anything you do to damage one of those food chain contributors screws up the food chain.

I just want to point out here that we LOVE a well oiled food chain.  It speeds up food delivery to the plants when the temps rise.  It slows down as everything goes dormant.  You couldn't ask for a better partner.

Some of the things we do to screw up the microbes in your Soil: tilling and shoveling.  Fertilizing with chemical fertilizers (all fertilizers are Salts, by definition).  Drying out the Soil.  Overwatering.

Avoid those, and you're in business.  Water properly and mow diligently.  

Any questions?

THE LONG ISLAND GARDENER