2016 Lawn thread

[Philemon]

Joe M said:

How did you spread the seed? I've just received my seed and fertiliser order from lawnsmith and I think a spreader is the last thing I need to complete the task. Small garden, less than 100sqm. Ive looked at the handheld evergreen one but reviews are very mixed.

For a lawn under 100 sqm - Lawnsmith have good videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kaegmx52dyg

Basically, you grab a small handful and fling it about with a flick of the wrist!

Edited by Philemon on Thursday 5th May 17:39

[Willeh85]

Joe M said:

How did you spread the seed? I've just received my seed and fertiliser order from lawnsmith and I think a spreader is the last thing I need to complete the task. Small garden, less than 100sqm. Ive looked at the handheld evergreen one but reviews are very mixed.

I've got a spreader I picked up last year for cheap, I got it for £10. It Can be used for seed or fertilizing.

I set it to the medium setting and just kept doing north/south and east/west passes until I'd used half of my bag of seed.

[Joe M]

Do you know which one it was? I've no issue with a cheap hand spreader if it works. Dont really want to buy a wheeled one as its probably overkill and my lawn isn't flat.
Ill maybe give the throwing it about a go on a test area.

Edited by Joe M on Thursday 5th May 19:49

Edited by Joe M on Thursday 5th May 19:50

[Willeh85]

Joe M said:

Do you know which one it was? I've no issue with a cheap hand spreader if it works. Dont really want to buy a wheeled one as its probably overkill and my lawn isn't flat.
Ill maybe give the throwing it about a go on a test area.

Edited by Joe M on Thursday 5th May 19:49

Edited by Joe M on Thursday 5th May 19:50

Sorry, I thought I'd linked it in my last post. It was the same as this one from Homebase, that also appears to be the cheapest around at the moment.
http://www.homebase.co.uk/en/homebaseuk/evergreen-...

[8-P]

Just bought that one, 10 quid cheaper than b and q too thanks homobase

Its sat in the garage in the box so cant report, should be ok though

[NorthDave]

Willeh85 said:

I think it is crab grass. When I look closer I have a fair bit running through the lawn.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a treatment to kill it?

[Joe M]

You can either try and pull it out, or use something with glyphosate targeted on the problem grass only. This will leave patches that will need repaired though.

[LordHaveMurci]

8-P said:

Just bought that one, 10 quid cheaper than b and q too thanks homobase

Its sat in the garage in the box so cant report, should be ok though

Bought one from Homebase about a month ago, was £19.00 then. Seems Ok, ~I'm sure if you spend more you get a better quality product but if, like me, you won't use it much does it matter?

[8-P]

LordHaveMurci said:

Bought one from Homebase about a month ago, was £19.00 then. Seems Ok, ~I'm sure if you spend more you get a better quality product but if, like me, you won't use it much does it matter?

Nope, mine will see action twice a year on a smallish lawn

[_bryan_]

Spreaders seem to be a question asked about a lot on here lately. I bought one, it's gathering dust in the garage, I can do a much better job by hand. Everyone seems to lack the confidence to do it by hand, unless you've got a football pitch size lawn I don't see the benefit.

[HappyMidget]

After a 2 week holiday my lawn had got a bit out of control. As I had to work from home yesterday due to the platform fire at Vauxhall affecting my train, I took the opportunity to have a go at it.

I went from this:


To this:


Via this:


Got a few areas to look after and reseed, and also got the rest of the garden to complete this year as well before SWMBO goes mental! I also turned the lawn sprinklers and irrigation timer on yesterday to keep things nice and green

[LordHaveMurci]

_bryan_ said:

Spreaders seem to be a question asked about a lot on here lately. I bought one, it's gathering dust in the garage, I can do a much better job by hand. Everyone seems to lack the confidence to do it by hand, unless you've got a football pitch size lawn I don't see the benefit.

I did my 100-150m2 front lawn by hand, it looked f'ing awful! My OH laughed loudly as she did it last year & I gave her grief about the f'ing awful end result.

Did it with the spreader & pretty much spot on.

[HappyMidget]

LordHaveMurci said:

I did my 100-150m2 front lawn by hand, it looked f'ing awful! My OH laughed loudly as she did it last year & I gave her grief about the f'ing awful end result.

Did it with the spreader & pretty much spot on.

I did mine by hand with the seed mixed into some topsoil. I found the "coffee beans" motion works well for spreading the seed! (fnarr fnarr)

[MrChips]

After multiple passes with the scarifier and then an electric rake, this is now what's left:







Seems like still way too much moss and dead material so im not sure how to best remove it. I've used the electric rake, then the mower to suck the bits up so maybe it just needs a few more passes in multiple directions?

Will be ordering some topsoil and have my fertiliser and seed ready to go down but the bare ground at the moment doesn't look like the best starting point.

[LordHaveMurci]

MrChips said:

After multiple passes with the scarifier and then an electric rake, this is now what's left:

[url]|http://thumbsnap.com/1RyFRZ9A[/url

:

You've got some balls!

[scz4]

Glad I found this thread...

So what are tolerances of grass growing through top soil? See pics below. I've extended our garden into the field, but it's pretty uneven, so I've been putting top soil down to trying to flatten it out a little. Happy to re-seed if required, but hoping it may push through, probably 1 to 2" deep.

(apologies about the quality of the pictures, sun was going down)

Edited by scz4 on Friday 6th May 21:33

[MG-FIDO]

HappyMidget said:

After a 2 week holiday my lawn had got a bit out of control. As I had to work from home yesterday due to the platform fire at Vauxhall affecting my train, I took the opportunity to have a go at it.

I went from this:


To this:


Via this:


Got a few areas to look after and reseed, and also got the rest of the garden to complete this year as well before SWMBO goes mental! I also turned the lawn sprinklers and irrigation timer on yesterday to keep things nice and green

Looks good at the moment, but you really threw caution to the wind with regards to the 1/3 rule!

[HappyMidget]

MG-FIDO said:

Looks good at the moment, but you really threw caution to the wind with regards to the 1/3 rule!

The big long stuff at the front of the photo needs to go anyway as it is just a big pile of earth left over from rotovating last year. Most of the rest was close anyway, just a few clumps of long stuff from where I "watered" the garden when drunk . Gonna rake, seed and fertilise this weekend.

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

scz4 said:

Glad I found this thread...

So what are tolerances of grass growing through top soil? See pics below. I've extended our garden into the field, but it's pretty uneven, so I've been putting top soil down to trying to flatten it out a little. Happy to re-seed if required, but hoping it may push through, probably 1 to 2" deep.

(apologies about the quality of the pictures, sun was going down)

Edited by scz4 on Friday 6th May 21:33

That is such a golden opportunity to put some seed down; why wouldn't you, with the weather being so ideal for germination over the next week or so? Definitely seed it, and scatter some over the existing lawn as well to blend it in.

[scz4]

Dr Mike Oxgreen said:

scz4 said:

Glad I found this thread...

So what are tolerances of grass growing through top soil? See pics below. I've extended our garden into the field, but it's pretty uneven, so I've been putting top soil down to trying to flatten it out a little. Happy to re-seed if required, but hoping it may push through, probably 1 to 2" deep.

(apologies about the quality of the pictures, sun was going down)

Edited by scz4 on Friday 6th May 21:33

That is such a golden opportunity to put some seed down; why wouldn't you, with the weather being so ideal for germination over the next week or so? Definitely seed it, and scatter some over the existing lawn as well to blend it in.

Thanks, although I I should have stated I'm in the NE of Scotland, so ground temperatures are still below 10 degrees, so not quite ready yet.