My problems with the lawn are complicated.
1: I reside on a farm. It is 850 hectares or 2,500 acres. It is sheep farming country (merino). So, it's not highly fertile land.
2: I'm in the southern hemisphere as you're aware. So that's temperatures from -10°C to roughly 45°C and we're just having a wet period (by which I mean we've had 120 mm of rain in the last month! No, there's no zero missing 12 cm in all of October and 8cm of that has fallen since Saturday just gone)
3: I'm at an altitude high enough to affect yeast and breadmaking significantly and also affect our weather (2,800 feet) - Usually that means moisture in the form of clouds. Thunderstorms have a tendancy to miss us usually travelling between the mountains and down the plains. We see them, we hear them but we don't (usually) get their much needed water.
4: Australian soil is hydrophilic. I'm not kidding. It hates water. Water just beads on it and runs off or evaporates. The soil doesn't absorb it. Despite all the rain since the weekend, if I dig 5cm down the soil will be dry.
5: Watering has several problems. The 1st is that I'm on a private water supply. If it does not rain, the house has no water. The tank holds 22,000 litres and when it's empty the only option Is water from the dams that sheep (and every wild bird or animal or reptile... ) has access to. If it is allowed into the fresh water tank and hence pipes absolutely everything (tank, pipes ...) has to be sterilised before water coming out of the kitchen tap can be considered sterile and safe to drink again. And if there's no water in the tank, then we have no sanitation. And things like bleach, or hydrogen peroxide can't be used in large quantity because we're an a septic tank that is self draining and that drains into one of the fields.
6: Weeds... we can't remove them on mass because they are the only thing holding the soil down. Once the dry weather arrives, any soil not held down somehow is blown away literally. Dust storms are very common and often reduce visibility to less than 100m and block out the sun for days on end. The weeds are field mallow and Cape daisy mostly. Then there's what is known as Australian runner grass. It is not lawn grass at all! I do have a small patch of good grass. It was sewn when we first moved in. It had to be fenced off all round and from above. Australian birds (and other Aussie wildlife) are grassroot eaters by which I mean they eat the roots of grasses. Some of the Aussie specific wildlife is also root eaters. They evolved that way to cope with droughts when grass is dead above the soil.
7: I have chickens. About 20 of them. They eat grass. They dig holes. They are or would be if I had any, great at removing moss from a lawn. They are also great at removing the lawn.And when they find a dry spot with lovely fine dust for soil... Nothing will get grass growing there ever again. They love to dust bathe and a 4kg bird can dig a hole big enough to completely disappear!
Finally, and as if that's not enough all of the surrounding farmes (all sheep farmers) have given up trying to grow grass, ploughed their fields and sewn winter rye so that the sheep actually have something to eat !
As a rule, I don't feed anything in the veg plot either. But they do get watered. Very little water actually goes into the septic tank. There's an Aussie saying related to the toilet... roughly "if it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown flush it down ". We've revised it slightly to " if you can smell it, flush it" lol.
All other water Is used somewhere in the garden. The cleanest goes to hebs. Next comes veg and the likes (fruiting trees etc) and finally really filthy water goes over flowers that I would like to keep alive during the hot summer. (When we shower, we stand in a very large tub. That is how much water you are allowed for the shower and once It is cold, it is used to water veg & fruit).
I just don't think I stand a chance.
I learnt to garden in the UK (mostly the north). I'm only just finishing my 5th winter here.
I'll see if I can find you a picture of my lawn! lol though I suspect a certain moderator will turn this into a new thread before long!
