2016 Lawn thread

[S11Steve]

Following on from my minor contribution in the 2015 thread;

The house was empty for 5 years, and the garden completely overgrown with trees, bushes and a few patches waist high grass.





We had a small budget for garden clearance, but have spent most of the last year in time and money on the inside of the house. The consensus from the 2015 thread was to dig it up and start again, but we have longer term plans for landscaping and building a garage and patio area. So leg work it was to make the best of a bad deal - a lot of chopping, shredding, skip loading..





scarifying, moss killing and more clearing of the borders...





We are now close to this point - I have a stump grinder booked for next month to remove 38 (!!!) stumps, a small electric rotavator off ebay for the borders, and a big bag of grass seed.





Still a long way to go, and most of the front and side is going to be ripped up next year for the driveway and garage, but for now it's nicer to look at and far easier to manage than when we first moved in.

[PostHeads123]

8-P said:

Good result, got to be happy with that after a load of effort

Think Id be tempted to have that small tree out though

Thanks.

Yeah that small tree will go later in the year, though not obvious from pic's I already had a lot of tree pruning etc done in Nov, Dec last year, when I moved in the garden was very overgrown, the bare patch to the left that was covered by one laurel bush were the branches had sprung out around 20-30ft wide. Its nice garden but I under estimated the effort it needs and maintaining has become like a second job.

[S11Steve]

PostHeads123 said:

Thanks.

Yeah that small tree will go later in the year, though not obvious from pic's I already had a lot of tree pruning etc done in Nov, Dec last year, when I moved in the garden was very overgrown, the bare patch to the left that was covered by one laurel bush were the branches had sprung out around 20-30ft wide. Its nice garden but I under estimated the effort it needs and maintaining has become like a second job.

I feel your pain - solidarity in clearing jungles!

[8-P]

PostHeads123 said:

Thanks.

Yeah that small tree will go later in the year, though not obvious from pic's I already had a lot of tree pruning etc done in Nov, Dec last year, when I moved in the garden was very overgrown, the bare patch to the left that was covered by one laurel bush were the branches had sprung out around 20-30ft wide. Its nice garden but I under estimated the effort it needs and maintaining has become like a second job.

I love my house, but Id love a bigger garden much like yours, but as you say.........having nearly got on top of my garden which I would describe as 25% the size of yours makes me realise how much effort is required to stay on top of it let alone make it look good. If I turn my back for a second then the weeds have sprung up, the lawn grows like its possessed now Ive seeded/fed it/genrerally followed the thread code! Add in new plants/tubs/ideas to make improve it and as you say its like a second job, that a) doesnt pay and b) annoys the wife if its done too often even though she likes the end result. Then theres a 5 year old to entertain too!

[8-P]

S11Steve said:

Following on from my minor contribution in the 2015 thread;

The house was empty for 5 years, and the garden completely overgrown with trees, bushes and a few patches waist high grass.





We had a small budget for garden clearance, but have spent most of the last year in time and money on the inside of the house. The consensus from the 2015 thread was to dig it up and start again, but we have longer term plans for landscaping and building a garage and patio area. So leg work it was to make the best of a bad deal - a lot of chopping, shredding, skip loading..





scarifying, moss killing and more clearing of the borders...





We are now close to this point - I have a stump grinder booked for next month to remove 38 (!!!) stumps, a small electric rotavator off ebay for the borders, and a big bag of grass seed.





Still a long way to go, and most of the front and side is going to be ripped up next year for the driveway and garage, but for now it's nicer to look at and far easier to manage than when we first moved in.

You certainly had your work cut out, its stump central isnt it! Nice blue rhododendron too. How does a house go empty for 5 years?

[Vipers]

8-P said:

You certainly had your work cut out, its stump central isnt it! Nice blue rhododendron too. How does a house go empty for 5 years?

Not difficult, when I moved from the midlands to Aberdeen, my company paid the bridging loan on the house in the Midlands.

After 2 years, no takers, had to move back. So I am guessing 5 years is not unusual. (May be different for this one).

[S11Steve]

8-P said:

You certainly had your work cut out, its stump central isnt it! Nice blue rhododendron too. How does a house go empty for 5 years?

The Rhody has got a bye through to the next round, along with another one in the front, but I do plan to keep it long term. The large tree behind the conservatory, and two similar sized ones are next to come down, but we'll wait until the rest of the work is being done. Dropping trees is the easy bit, getting rid of the waste and stumps is soul destroying.

It was a former vicarage belonging to the local Bishop and was kind of a "grace and favour" house for local priests. The last tenant went off to do some missionary work and it was kept for him, but he never returned.

The church are clearly so underfunded they couldn't employ a gardener to come in a few times a year. The neighbours are much happier too.

[8-P]

S11Steve said:

The Rhody has got a bye through to the next round, along with another one in the front, but I do plan to keep it long term. The large tree behind the conservatory, and two similar sized ones are next to come down, but we'll wait until the rest of the work is being done. Dropping trees is the easy bit, getting rid of the waste and stumps is soul destroying.

It was a former vicarage belonging to the local Bishop and was kind of a "grace and favour" house for local priests. The last tenant went off to do some missionary work and it was kept for him, but he never returned.

The church are clearly so underfunded they couldn't employ a gardener to come in a few times a year. The neighbours are much happier too.

I had the same problem with the shrubs and a 20 year old ivy. 7 or 8 trips to the tip for one ivy the little fcker, ended up pretty much digging the root out by hand and lowering my power saw into the hole killing numerous blades, brute force eventually killed it. Trees are great but they need keeping in check and at some point unless you are really careful they get out of control and you are left with a problem.

[Tony Angelino]

Taken the top off mine tonight as it was getting a bit long and we are due rain in the next couple of days, after almost 2 weeks of daily rain since I over seeded.

Thanks to this thread we've gone from:



To this:

[url]|http://thumbsnap.com/ObytxdUj[/url

During that time. The right hand edge took a bit of a pounding as I was laying a patio so had to handball a load of crusher run and flags etc down as well as traipsing up and down over the weekend when it was really wet. Plan is to swap sides in the next 2 weeks of so and move the barrier to the other edge (there to keep the dog and kids off the new bit).

Used some Iron Sulphate, then scarified, then used Lawnsmith Fertiliser and then finally oversewed with Lawnsmith shady green. Absolutely chuffed with the progress so far. Only thing is, we have some mushrooms poking through - any tips please fellas?

[Cheib]

We've done massive amounts of garden clearance in the last year too...moved in last year to a house that hadn't had the garden looked after properly for ten years. This was done about four months ago after we'd already cut back a huge amount.

Before



After



Before



After

[jagnet]

Tony Angelino said:

Only thing is, we have some mushrooms poking through - any tips please fellas?

That's looking great. It certainly has been perfect weather for seeding. I would spend some time decompacting the trodden path to the right when you can - footfall plus wet ground can lead to some very compacted soil.

As for the mushrooms, there's not a lot you can do about them. On the whole the fungi aren't an issue, just brush off the visible mushrooms before cutting to avoid crushing them into the grass. With all the wet weather mushrooms aren't unexpected at this point and imho are a sign of a good healthy soil biology which is so important for the health of the lawn.

The one not so helpful fungus is Marasmius oreades or "fairy rings" which can leave areas of dead grass around the ring. Again there's not much that you can do about that to remove it other than to dig out very large quantities of affected soil. It's usually just easier to deal with the consequences than try to get rid of it.

[covmutley]

jagnet said:

As for the mushrooms, there's not a lot you can do about them. On the whole the fungi aren't an issue, just brush off the visible mushrooms before cutting to avoid crushing them into the grass.

My 4 year old found mushrooms last week and so took a hammer from my shed and hammered them into the grass!

My 'lawn' was 3 foot high when we moved house just before Christmas and I am pleased how it has come on following advice on this thread. Must get some pics up soon.

[MisterJD]

Lawn enthusiasts, would appreciate your guidance on petrol mowers. Fed up of my wired mower which having moved is too small, cutting deck isn't big enough.

Pitfalls of pushed versus self-propelled? Best manufacturers? Honda IZY mowers any good?

Thanks

[Tony Angelino]

jagnet said:

Tony Angelino said:

Only thing is, we have some mushrooms poking through - any tips please fellas?

That's looking great. It certainly has been perfect weather for seeding. I would spend some time decompacting the trodden path to the right when you can - footfall plus wet ground can lead to some very compacted soil.

As for the mushrooms, there's not a lot you can do about them. On the whole the fungi aren't an issue, just brush off the visible mushrooms before cutting to avoid crushing them into the grass. With all the wet weather mushrooms aren't unexpected at this point and imho are a sign of a good healthy soil biology which is so important for the health of the lawn.

The one not so helpful fungus is Marasmius oreades or "fairy rings" which can leave areas of dead grass around the ring. Again there's not much that you can do about that to remove it other than to dig out very large quantities of affected soil. It's usually just easier to deal with the consequences than try to get rid of it.

Thanks for the feedback, it's thanks to this thread that I've got anywhere with the lawn. Couple more pointers needed please to help me if anybody can help.

How long before I can get rid of the barrier and let the dog/kids on it for general use?
How might I deco pact my heavily used path? Would those spikes shoes do the job?

Just taken the top off it again and straight after its pissed it down.

Tony 1
Mother Nature 0

Thanks all.

[Joe M]

MisterJD said:

Lawn enthusiasts, would appreciate your guidance on petrol mowers. Fed up of my wired mower which having moved is too small, cutting deck isn't big enough.

Pitfalls of pushed versus self-propelled? Best manufacturers? Honda IZY mowers any good?

Thanks

You won't go wrong with a honda izy. The decks can rust if not looked after but thats to be expected and any steel deck will rust.
Anything with a honda engine is good though. Briggs and Stratton engines are ok apart from one major flaw, that being the honda exists.

[jagnet]

Tony Angelino said:

How long before I can get rid of the barrier and let the dog/kids on it for general use?
How might I deco pact my heavily used path? Would those spikes shoes do the job?

I'd give the lawn three months after seeding before light use, although with the excellent growing conditions that we've had you could well get away with less. A lawn could be considered 'established' after 18 months so you'll still need to go easy on it for a while yet - games of football are probably best kept to the park for now.

The spiked shoes might well have long enough spikes but they're awkward to use. An aerating roller is better if you don't already have the shoes and will probably be sufficient. It's also a useful tool for aerating through the season and does a decent job of keeping the surface open. Deeper compaction can be dealt with by a garden fork if necessary - stick it in and ease back on the handle to lift the soil slightly.

[MikeGoodwin]

Could I have some advice please - Westland Feed and Seed Lawn Thickener

Moved into new house Jan this year. lawn a state. Ive replaced dead bits and moss/soil areas with new topsoil and grass. All looking good and the lawn itself is greener now its had some nitrogen in it!

Plan for autumn was to scarify the lawn, weed and feed it big time, then a few weeks later over seed. Hopefully form there weed and feed will keep it good once or twice a year.

In the mean time, is it worth using Feed and seed lawn thickener to keep it looking nicer?

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

MikeGoodwin said:

In the mean time, is it worth using Feed and seed lawn thickener to keep it looking nicer?

If the rain continues, then you should get decent germination. If you have enough of the product to do one or two applications over the summer and still have plenty to do the autumn job, then go for it. Alternatively, just use a high nitrogen summer lawn feed over the summer and use the seed in the autumn.

[jagnet]

I'm not that keen on combined products - they're convenient at times, but they're expensive for what they are, the exact contents are frequently a mystery and they encourage treating the lawn with things that it doesn't need.

A healthy lawn shouldn't need much in the way of weed killer. On a neglected lawn then an all over weed killer treatment can be justified (which may need to be repeated) but spot treating should be more than sufficient after that if you have a good healthy turf.

Getting hold of grass seed seperately will also allow you to choose a seed mix tailored to your lawn taking into account levels of shade, how much wear and tear it'll be getting, fineness of appearance, etc. Choosing a seed mix and sticking to it for both large and small repairs will mean that you get better consistancy of colour, appearance etc across the lawn.

There's nothing to stop you adding seed throughout the growing season although it is more common to do it once a year when conditions are likely to be optimum for germination and after scarifying etc to assist good seed to soil contact. Spot treat the worst weeds unless the weed problem really is bad. If you have bare patches then it's worth trying to get some seed down on those to provide some competition for weed grasses and other weeds but aim to properly overseed in the autumn after scarifying and aerating.

With settled more summery weather possible from the middle of July, seed sown now is going to leave the seedlings very exposed to droughty conditions if the weather does improve then.

[MikeGoodwin]

Thanks, I might use a fertiliser then and atleast I can have a few months of green grass. Then start properly later in the year by scarifying it.