Lawn Care Thread

[markbigears]

What did you go for?

[Bonefish Blues]

One of these - cheap, well-reviewed.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000V17M1I/ref=...
Oh, and spares available, too.

[IS200RJR]

could anyone reconmend me some good lawn seed. we are starting from scratch and wont be moving in for a few months but would like some grass when we do.

[Patch1875]

IS200RJR said:

could anyone reconmend me some good lawn seed. we are starting from scratch and wont be moving in for a few months but would like some grass when we do.

http://www.pitchcare.com/shop/hard-wearing-lawn-grass-seed/lm3-grass-seed-10kg

Something like this is fine for a standard lawn,grass seed for the domestic lawn is pretty standard don't get cheap stuff but even b&q own stuff would be fine,seeding is a bit of a weather lottery and larger areas would probably require continuing seeding to fill the gaps.

[Craikeybaby]

Since applying Scott's Lawnbuilder I've gone from:

Lawn by Lewis Craik, on Flickr

To:

Treated Lawn by Lewis Craik, on Flickr

I know I've still got a long way to go to the perfect lawn, but the pictures don't really do it justice, it looks more green than yellow now. I'm going to aim for weekly cuts on the highest setting for the rest of the summer, then have a blitz on the moss etc and reseed towards the back end of the summer.

[davidd]

I like that lean to thing..

[Patch1875]

Looks good, plenty time for it to improve once we get a bit more heat it should green up even more.

Remember to water it if it gets a bit dry

[Craikeybaby]

Patch1875 said:

Looks good, plenty time for it to improve once we get a bit more heat it should green up even more.

Remember to water it if it gets a bit dry

Will do!

davidd said:

I like that lean to thing..

Thanks, it's great when the sun is out, we've only recently moved in so haven't got any patio furniture sorted yet, but as it is SW facing it should be perfect for dinners outside. Quite a few of the houses on the street have replaced theirs with extensions/conservatories, shame.

[Cactussed]

Chaps
I am going to dig this thread out of the depths of time as we have purchased a house with about a third of an acre, most of which is lawn and is in fairly dire condition.

I have spent this year so far just mowing it (24in Atco) and whilst it has helped, I am at the point of now needing to put in some additional effort.

The soil id quite heavy (clay based) so I think my next step is going to be a good scarify starting September, followed by hollow tine aeration then a thorough going over with sharp sand.

Hopefully that should improve the compaction, drainage and soil quality slightly and also kill off some of the weeds?

Does that sound abought right?

Should I be hitting it with a weed killer or overseeding before sand, or is it wrong time of year?

[Cactussed]

Blimey. SO much good info on here!
http://www.lawnsmith.co.uk/

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

Last weekend I did my annual(-ish) lawn maintenance regime: scarify, aerate and overseed. It's a little early, but I'm hoping to get away with it since we've had such good growing conditions throughout July, and August has been somewhat cooler.

Here it is part way through the second pass of the scarifier. I did a couple of further passes after this, and it now looks more like the landscape that the Mars Rover would recognise!

I've now got three sprinklers set up to come on at staggered times to keep it all gently watered. Fingers crossed!

[Bonefish Blues]

Cactussed said:

Blimey. SO much good info on here!
http://www.lawnsmith.co.uk/

Their products are good, too, IME.

[Cactussed]

Blimey! Do you thne havve to rake it all up and dispose? Must take up a LOT of room!

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

Cactussed said:

Blimey! Do you thne havve to rake it all up and dispose? Must take up a LOT of room!

Yup!

I probably did about 4 passes with the scarifier, and each of the first 3 passes pulled out about the same amount of material as you can see in the picture. The last pass pulled out significantly less, signalling the end of the job. I was using my lawn mower as a "hoover" to lift up most of the material, but it could only go about 10 yards at a time before its grass bag needed emptying. I filled two green wheelie bins for each of the first three passes - so six wheelie binfuls in total. I was back and forth to the tip to empty them.

Before I did the final scarifying pass, I went round with the other machine I'd rented: the hollow tine aerator. This leaves the lawn covered in "plugs" of soil that look like dog turds. My hope was that the final pass of the scarfier would bash the plugs into oblivion, and fortunately it worked!

Scarifying is easy. Getting rid of the thatch is the really hard work!

[Cactussed]

Well, our garden hasn't seen any love for about 10 years I'd say. Heavy, compacted clay soil, lots of moss and weeds.

I have a qualcast with scarifyer attachment which I will be using, so fingers crossed.
I figure it will take me quite a few passes. So scarifying, then going to hit with the moss killer (trying Mo Bacter) then about 2 weeks affter that, I'll have another scarify and hollow tine, then sprinkle with sharp sand and see what happens.

I'm hoping that sould kill off some of the worst offeding weeds and moss, as well as improving the grass growing conditions.

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

Sounds a good plan.

If you can afford to over-seed afterwards as well, it's a great opportunity to introduce some fresh young grass into the lawn.

[Cactussed]

Good shout on the grass seed. I'll get me some of that also.

[RC1]

the prospect of tending to 350m2 of undulating lawn on a gradient that was saturated with thatch and moss and other bad stuff filled me with dread so we got the boys from green sleeves and green thumb over and went with the latter in the end

we are into our second season with them and given the effort to scarify and aerate etc I think its money well spent... the weed / feed treatments are not labour intensive but seeing these guys do the aeration and scarification stuff is scary.... to keep the costs manageable however I have elected to dispose of the waste myself but they will bag it up. the amount of crap that came up after the scarification was massive

their efforts in year 1 were immediately noticeable. its tougher going this year and im not sure if its conditions or their forumula but ill see where we are after they've scarified and overseeded

[Patch1875]

Dr Mike Oxgreen said:

Cactussed said:

Blimey! Do you thne havve to rake it all up and dispose? Must take up a LOT of room!

Yup!

I probably did about 4 passes with the scarifier, and each of the first 3 passes pulled out about the same amount of material as you can see in the picture. The last pass pulled out significantly less, signalling the end of the job. I was using my lawn mower as a "hoover" to lift up most of the material, but it could only go about 10 yards at a time before its grass bag needed emptying. I filled two green wheelie bins for each of the first three passes - so six wheelie binfuls in total. I was back and forth to the tip to empty them.

Before I did the final scarifying pass, I went round with the other machine I'd rented: the hollow tine aerator. This leaves the lawn covered in "plugs" of soil that look like dog turds. My hope was that the final pass of the scarfier would bash the plugs into oblivion, and fortunately it worked!

Scarifying is easy. Getting rid of the thatch is the really hard work!

Good job!

I do this for a living forget trying to pick up the waste using the bag or a mower it's a waste of time get a good quality plastic leaf rake I've yet to find a quicker way!

By the time next spring comes I will have done 150-200 lawns

[Bonefish Blues]

Patch1875 said:

Good job!

I do this for a living forget trying to pick up the waste using the bag or a mower it's a waste of time get a good quality plastic leaf rake I've yet to find a quicker way!

By the time next spring comes I will have done 150-200 lawns

This - it's just too bulky to collect by mower.