2015 Lawn thread
Discussion
R8VXF said:
Woodpiles are awesome. Get quite a lot of stag beetles in our garden every year due to ours. They are bloody awesome 
I find the stag beetles fascinating, and somewhat comical when they start flying around looking for females. I use 'flying' in the loosest sense - controlled crashing seems a more apt description.jagnet said:
R8VXF said:
Woodpiles are awesome. Get quite a lot of stag beetles in our garden every year due to ours. They are bloody awesome
I find the stag beetles fascinating, and somewhat comical when they start flying around looking for females. I use 'flying' in the loosest sense - controlled crashing seems a more apt description.
I'm not an expert, but I wonder if maybe the larvae might skip a year if conditions aren't favourable. Remember that the larvae live for several years before emerging as adults, so it's conceivable they might just delay pupating for another year if things aren't right. If that's the case, then the lack of adults flying around wouldn't be too much of a worry.
R8VXF said:
Anyone got any good tips for sieving large quantities of earth? Just using a hand sieve at the moment and it is taking a rather long time...
Some great ideas on youtube:DIY jigsaw powered sieve
Homemade rotary sieve
One made from an old cement mixer
Will the kids miss their swing?
jagnet said:
Some great ideas on youtube:
DIY jigsaw powered sieve
Homemade rotary sieve
One made from an old cement mixer
Will the kids miss their swing?
Cheers, will check them out when i get home DIY jigsaw powered sieve
Homemade rotary sieve
One made from an old cement mixer
Will the kids miss their swing?
I made a rotary sieve using bicycle rims and a cylinder of 1 inch wire mesh through the middle. Shovelled soil into it and rolled it backwards and forwards on a slightly tilted wooden frame raised off the ground. Pile of soil underneath the sieve to shovel away, pile of stones fall out the end into a bucket. I did about 5 tonnes like this, much more and I'd buy a motorised rotary sieve (about £300 from memory) and sell on after.
Right - I've made a momentous decision. This year, I'm going to do what I should have done years ago.
I'm going to glyphosate my whole lawn. There, I've said it!
I'm fed up with the widespread infestation of weed grasses in my lawn. It looks okay from a distance, but close-up it's horrible. My experiments with bicarbonate have been a bit disappointing: it browns the grass, but it all recovers - including the coarse stuff. So this year's Autumn renovation is going to start off with a spray of glyphosate. Here's the plan...
We're going away for a week in August, so a couple of days before we go I will spray with glyphosate. When we get home, most of it should be well on the way to death apart from the inevitable bits I've missed, which I can spray then. A further week later it's the August bank holiday weekend. I'll rent a scarifier and use it to grub out the dead grass, and use its lowest setting to scuff up the soil surface ready for seeding. I'm going to seed using a nice fine grass mix with no rye, and sprinkle a layer of cheapo compost on top, possibly with blood fish & bone or a grass seed fertiliser.
I'm not planning to rotavate or dig in any soil amendments. My reasoning is that (a) I haven't the energy and can't be arsed, (b) it'll increase the cost of the job, and (c) I have no problems with drainage, moss etc. The surface is slightly bumpy, but I can live with it.
Next spring, I will use the pre-emergent herbicide stuff that I bought from the US to prevent crab grass and other weed grasses from germinating.
I have recently had to repair a patch that died when I left some pyracantha prunings on it for too long, and the seed has germinated in less than a week - so this has given me confidence.
Questions:
I'm going to glyphosate my whole lawn. There, I've said it!
I'm fed up with the widespread infestation of weed grasses in my lawn. It looks okay from a distance, but close-up it's horrible. My experiments with bicarbonate have been a bit disappointing: it browns the grass, but it all recovers - including the coarse stuff. So this year's Autumn renovation is going to start off with a spray of glyphosate. Here's the plan...
We're going away for a week in August, so a couple of days before we go I will spray with glyphosate. When we get home, most of it should be well on the way to death apart from the inevitable bits I've missed, which I can spray then. A further week later it's the August bank holiday weekend. I'll rent a scarifier and use it to grub out the dead grass, and use its lowest setting to scuff up the soil surface ready for seeding. I'm going to seed using a nice fine grass mix with no rye, and sprinkle a layer of cheapo compost on top, possibly with blood fish & bone or a grass seed fertiliser.
I'm not planning to rotavate or dig in any soil amendments. My reasoning is that (a) I haven't the energy and can't be arsed, (b) it'll increase the cost of the job, and (c) I have no problems with drainage, moss etc. The surface is slightly bumpy, but I can live with it.
Next spring, I will use the pre-emergent herbicide stuff that I bought from the US to prevent crab grass and other weed grasses from germinating.
I have recently had to repair a patch that died when I left some pyracantha prunings on it for too long, and the seed has germinated in less than a week - so this has given me confidence.
Questions:
- Will I regret my decision not to rotavate?
- Will sowing on the August bank holiday weekend give my grass enough time to get established before the winter? Should I just get on with it now?
- Blood fish and bone, or a special grass seed fertiliser?
- Am I being a total bloody idiot? Mrs Oxgreen thinks so.
I will be joining you Mike in this I have a bbq on Saturday the 1st August and that evening I am going to kill all mine as well but I am rotivating mine as my levels are way out and have a lot of stones close to the surface but we have excellent soil about 2ft deep before a clay layer. My family think I'm mental as well for doing it but it looks much easier to start from scratch than spend years polishing a turd!. I'm not sure what seed to get was looking at the lawn smith ones but not sure wether to buy the classic seed or go all out ornamental?. I know ornamental requires loads of work but I fancy the challenge does anyone have an ornamental lawn can chip in with some info on upkeep?.
Edited by moles on Tuesday 14th July 12:02
Edited by moles on Tuesday 14th July 12:06
Dr Mike Oxgreen said:
Questions:
If you're not planning on correcting any level or bump issues and you don't have a problem with drainage (too much or too little) then I'd consider rotavating optional. Perhaps take a few core samples from different areas of the lawn to see if there's any problems lurking just to reassure yourself.- Will I regret my decision not to rotavate?
- Will sowing on the August bank holiday weekend give my grass enough time to get established before the winter? Should I just get on with it now?
- Blood fish and bone, or a special grass seed fertiliser?
- Am I being a total bloody idiot? Mrs Oxgreen thinks so.
Yes, your grass will have time to establish. I'd consider using some horticultural fleece over the lawn anyway which will speed things up too.
I'd use a dedicated starter fertiliser. BFB needs time for the soil's microbial residents to break it down into something usable.
Yes. No. Maybe.
I've come pretty close to deciding on the same thing several times this year, but I'm going to give the lawn one more chance to get its act together first. Plus I really ought to give all of my mowers a thorough rebuild this winter and that'll give my budget enough of a work out without a complete overhaul of the lawn as well.moles said:
I know ornamental requires loads of work but I fancy the challenge does anyone have an ornamental lawn can chip in with some info on upkeep?.
I would definitely give it a go. If you decide it isn't for you later then it's easy enough to overseed heavily with the Classic lawn mix.The main thing to consider is the usage that your lawn will get. If it's going to have kids and pets playing on it and be hosting numerous garden parties and barbeques then an ornamental lawn isn't the right one to have.
In terms of upkeep once you've sorted out any underlying problems with the ground it's not so onerous. It'll need mowing more often as you'll have a lower HOC. With the lower HOC you'll need to keep on top of irrigating in dry spells. You'll need a decent cylinder mower and you'll need to keep on top of its maintenance, particularly keeping a sharp cutting edge. Some of the finer grasses can generate a lot of thatch so you'll need to at least rake it regularly - light scarifying and verticutting is even better. Bumps and undulations are more obvious on an ornamental lawn so you'll need to take care of them.
On the plus side, many weeds really struggle with a very low cutting height, so you may find that you have less than before. The slower growing fescues need less fertiliser than ryegrasses, but you do need to be more aware of when they need feeding imho.
It is more work than a normal utility lawn, but it is well worth it.
Our new garden I'm starting to like. It's full of weeds, its actualy a case of spot the grass tbh. It's nice to just mow the heads off every so often, loving the bees.
But will all be going end of the summer as tree trunks and old concrete fence posts need digging out and they had old boarders which have grown over but sunk so will level the whole garden so may as well go for a bowling green.
But will all be going end of the summer as tree trunks and old concrete fence posts need digging out and they had old boarders which have grown over but sunk so will level the whole garden so may as well go for a bowling green.
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