2016 Lawn thread

[Craikeybaby]

The patches on my lawn are filling out nicely. Had a few people comment over the weekend about how good my lawn is looking.

[AC43]

tim0409 said:

I scarified it last year and was amazed at how much thatch was removed

I've exchanged on a new place and as it's empty the owner kindly gave me access over the weekend. I decided to tackle the lawn which, bar the odd cut, seems to have been pretty neglected for 2+ years.

I got to work with the scarifier and 16 sacks of moss and crap later I was done. Well when I say "done" I'd just run out of time. I reckon that if I'd gone over it again I'd have got another 10+ sackfuls.

Managed to get a quick feed applied and today it rained hard. Happy days.

i now need to go back over there with some iron sulphate and some verdone (there are tons of daisies).

And a fork to de-compress it. And some seed. And some dressing......

[8-P]

AC43 said:

I've exchanged on a new place and as it's empty the owner kindly gave me access over the weekend. I decided to tackle the lawn which, bar the odd cut, seems to have been pretty neglected for 2+ years.

I got to work with the scarifier and 16 sacks of moss and crap later I was done. Well when I say "done" I'd just run out of time. I reckon that if I'd gone over it again I'd have got another 10+ sackfuls.

Managed to get a quick feed applied and today it rained hard. Happy days.

i now need to go back over there with some iron sulphate and some verdone (there are tons of daisies).

And a fork to de-compress it. And some seed. And some dressing......

Should be ok, mine had been neglected for at least 5 years. 4 months in to project lawn and someone asked me if I had re turfed it, so clearly the routine worked!

[joestifff]

Ok, so a little bit of advice, our front lawn is south facing. I am trying to water it when its been dry for a while, and cut high at least every week.

However, although the grass is greener for all this the weeds are thriving. I dug out the dandelions, so am left with patches of soil where the grass seed refuses to grow! but there is loads more weeds thriving from my attention to them.

Can I use something like Resolva or Verdone patch spray (or maybe even the concentrated stuff for full coverage?) the area is only about 50m2. Can these weed killers be used with any of the feeds that I feel I should use? Do they even work?

Cheers

[AC43]

8-P said:

AC43 said:

I've exchanged on a new place and as it's empty the owner kindly gave me access over the weekend. I decided to tackle the lawn which, bar the odd cut, seems to have been pretty neglected for 2+ years.

I got to work with the scarifier and 16 sacks of moss and crap later I was done. Well when I say "done" I'd just run out of time. I reckon that if I'd gone over it again I'd have got another 10+ sackfuls.

Managed to get a quick feed applied and today it rained hard. Happy days.

i now need to go back over there with some iron sulphate and some verdone (there are tons of daisies).

And a fork to de-compress it. And some seed. And some dressing......

Should be ok, mine had been neglected for at least 5 years. 4 months in to project lawn and someone asked me if I had re turfed it, so clearly the routine worked!

Yup, all is possible. I suppose the thing I'm dreading is de-compacting it. Once I'd scraped half the crap of the surface it was rock solid and bone dry underneath. I put a sprinkler on it and in no time it was pooling up....*sigh* I hate de-compacting.....

[AC43]

joestifff said:

Can I use something like Resolva or Verdone patch spray

I've mainly used Verdone in soluble form in a watering can with one of those sprinkler bars attached and it seems to kill pretty much everything flat-leaved.

[bomb]

Starting to look a little more respectable ( from a distance).

[8-P]

bomb said:

Starting to look a little more respectable ( from a distance).

Looking good, the patchy bits always take time.

Now you just need to sort moss and weeds on your drive

[bomb]

A closer look sees plenty of patches.

In my defence - the driveway belongs to Mrs Bomb and she is responsible for the weed control of that zone.



Here is how she does it......

Edited by bomb on Thursday 2nd June 17:04

[Nick_MSM]

Fast forward 5 and a bit weeks. Not that happy with the area nearest patio, very patchy. We're moving soon anyway but hopefully it'll thicken up the more it's cut The area which used to flood has so far stood up quite well in heavy downpours. Seems relaying the slabs there and added a lot of top spoil/leveling has helped a lot.

[8-P]

Nick_MSM said:

Fast forward 5 and a bit weeks. Not that happy with the area nearest patio, very patchy. We're moving soon anyway but hopefully it'll thicken up the more it's cut The area which used to flood has so far stood up quite well in heavy downpours. Seems relaying the slabs there and added a lot of top spoil/leveling has helped a lot.

Hard to tell they are the same lawn! Patches seem almost inevitable. Ive seeded and reseeded and still I find bits that seem a bit on the sparse side!

[Nick_MSM]

8-P said:

Hard to tell they are the same lawn! Patches seem almost inevitable. Ive seeded and reseeded and still I find bits that seem a bit on the sparse side!

Thanks - it isn't a 'patch' on the lawn this time last year, but a massive improvement from the damage done over winter. If we're still in the house by autumn I'll give it another overseed then

[Hammerhead]

I gave the lawn it's second feed of the season last week, all good but I can see the bits I missed


Ice-cream break beckons...

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

Just hand-sprinkle a little bit of feed along the pale stripes and they'll disappear in a week or two.

[lhw455]

Hi all, long time thread lurker! Excellent advice on this thread, I was hoping someone could help me with a question. I bought some lawnsmith seeds (shady and normal) as well as some new lawn starter fertilizer. I wanted to also apply some fertilizer to the rest on my (non-new) lawn. Can I use the starter feed or do I need something different?

[BRISTOL86]

April vs May vs June

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

lhw455 said:

Hi all, long time thread lurker! Excellent advice on this thread, I was hoping someone could help me with a question. I bought some lawnsmith seeds (shady and normal) as well as some new lawn starter fertilizer. I wanted to also apply some fertilizer to the rest on my (non-new) lawn. Can I use the starter feed or do I need something different?

It'll do no harm.

The starter fertiliser will be lower in nitrogen, so it won't give such a surge of growth but it also won't give such a strong green-up. It will also be a milder strength fertiliser.

If you've got enough left over to do the rest of the lawn and you're sure you won't need it for any further seeding, then it'll do no harm to use it up.

Ideally though, your lawn wants plenty of nitrogen at this time of year. Lawnsmith's dedicated spring/summer fertiliser would give much better results. You might be better off keeping the starter fertiliser and using it in early autumn as a transition to the lower-nitrogen feed you'll use later in the year.

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

BRISTOL86 said:

April vs May vs June

Great improvement there!

Isn't it amazing how quickly those clothes-drier trees sprout up and grow?

[BRISTOL86]

Dr Mike Oxgreen said:

Great improvement there!

Isn't it amazing how quickly those clothes-drier trees sprout up and grow?

I know, feels like I only planted it yesterday!

On a seperate note, my garden seems to be absolutely infested with spiders! I know all gardens are to a degree, but this is crazy. If I turn the hose on where the lawn meets the deck, you see literally 30+ spiders at a time scrabbling around over the deck.

I'm pretty indifferent to them but the missus doesn't like it and it's not that nice to be sat chilling on the deck and seeing a shedload of spiders all over the place! They're about halfway between a 5 and 10p in size and very fast, and we never see them in the house. Anything I can do to try and deal with them?

[BRISTOL86]

These are the buggers. Sat on my deck now and I can see 18(!) of them within 6 feet of me.