Ive posted before on the sorry state of our lawn. We moved in in late September last year and it was very wet and neglected, just about impossible to cut. It has got worse over the winter.

I have to consider that we have a very small garden and two small children. Also they got a climbing frame for Christmas so this has to go up. We are also on a tight budget so turf is not an option.

Shall I ...

1. Cover it with sand and bark chippings then the climbing frame can go up straight away.

2. Make holes in it, put some sand on it and some compost then sow some grass seed. Bearing in mind the kids will want somewhere to play this summer! Its not really big enough to split into areas.

My garden blog should have some pictures.
http://peachesgarden.blogspot.com

You have to decide I think which is more important and which you need first. If you need a play area in spring then it's probably worth sand and bark chippings (but it's gonna look ugly...). Otherwise it's a process of reseeding and putting more soil / sand and spiking it. Renovating a lawn is a slow process and if you want a hard wearing surface then the kids are gonna have to make a sacrifice and be a little more careful (difficult for kids...).

Failing that - divide the grass up into quarters and each one of you gets a quarter and have a competition as to who's corner is the best looking in the summer!

I personally would compact it all down, cover it with membrane then get a really decent thick layer of play bark down- it's a much better protective surface if the kids come off the play equipment anyway, and the little ones won't get all muddy if they're playing out there after rain either.

If you membrane first then everything in your soil will be killed off but protected, so that in a couple of years, when they've outgrown the play equipment, you can just take it all up, dig the soil over and reseed or turf for it to be back to a lawn again.

All of my paths are just membrane with gravel over, so that I can change my mind and put them somewhere else if I choose. It's really low maintenance and easy to keep smart looking even when everything else would be a quagmire.