2016 Lawn thread
Discussion
RedLeicester said:
Awww diddy little tractor. Does the sprayer have booms, or just the single outlet?
It's got one outlet which apparently covers 4m's....also has a spot spraying lance. They do have booms....going to see how what I have ordered works as there's a lot less to break and it was cheaper. If not it's easy to order the booms.
I'll probably use it for spot spraying as much as spraying the lawn. The place we bought was very,very overgrown last year. Cut a huge amount back and killed off a lot of weeds....I think I needed seven or eight tank fulls in my backpack sprayer to kill all the weeds off!
Well I'm dealing with three lawns at the moment.
- the north facing front lawn at my current gaff which looked amazing last year but virtually died off over the winter (almost totally in the shade). Fed, Verdone'd and re-seeded with shade-tolerant seeds now looking green and lush
- the south facing rear lawn which was looking weak, yellow and patchy in the spring has been fed and Verdone'd. Really needs to be de-compacted but I'm off shortly so doubt I'll have the time
- the rear garden on my new place. It's probate and the owner has been OK with me popping over to start tacking the lawn. He did the first cut/hack. I followed this with an electric scarify (and took out 16 sacks of moss). Fed & verdoned it. Went back and gave it a cut with hand mower and strimmer. Went back again and gave it a further haircut with an electric Flymo. Went back one more time and hand raked 4 more sacks of moss out.
Looking forward to having just the one lawn to sort.....
- the north facing front lawn at my current gaff which looked amazing last year but virtually died off over the winter (almost totally in the shade). Fed, Verdone'd and re-seeded with shade-tolerant seeds now looking green and lush
- the south facing rear lawn which was looking weak, yellow and patchy in the spring has been fed and Verdone'd. Really needs to be de-compacted but I'm off shortly so doubt I'll have the time
- the rear garden on my new place. It's probate and the owner has been OK with me popping over to start tacking the lawn. He did the first cut/hack. I followed this with an electric scarify (and took out 16 sacks of moss). Fed & verdoned it. Went back and gave it a cut with hand mower and strimmer. Went back again and gave it a further haircut with an electric Flymo. Went back one more time and hand raked 4 more sacks of moss out.
Looking forward to having just the one lawn to sort.....
So I seeded on Sunday after a week of prep on our garden. We completely started from scratch as it was a mess and there was a lot of rock and general rubbish in the soil. Had some nice showers before seeding to get the ground moist and then another shower Sunday evening. However the rain today has been pretty hard. Will it mean I have to seed again? Obviously I will inspect the damage when I get home but theres no major run offs and the garden is flat but not sure what the done thing is.
Unlight said:
Is it too late in the season to start scarifying? My lawn is full of moss and worried that if I take it al out now I'll be left with no grass all summer!
I wouldn't scarify now, because of the risk of a hot dry spell that would make it very difficult for your lawn to recover. Leave it until late August or early September.It's not as ideal as autumn or spring as you're fighting the elements to a greater degree, but you can still scarify it now if you're able to keep it irrigated; in fact I did one lawn a couple of days ago although that one isn't being overseeded (which isn't ideal, but it's not the end of the world). With this week looking fairly wet overall (at least in this part of the country) it's actually not a bad week to be doing it. With the forecasted wet weather I've another lawn that's currently got fresh seed down to repair pet based damage.
If you're going to be overseeding then you will need to be ready to irrigate it at times. The most critical time is in the first couple of weeks after seeding. The seed will need to be kept moist initially to start germination off, and then not allowed to dry out during the intial phase before it's got a deep enough root to extract water from below the surface.
The new grasses will also be far more drought susceptible for the first few months, so you'll likely need to do some watering throughout the summer if we have hot dry spells, although not so often that they get used to having readily available water near the surface and don't develop a deep root system.
If you can set up sprinklers on a timer for the first couple of weeks then you shouldn't have any problems. Where it can become difficult is if you're out at work, there's a nice hot sunny day and many of the seedlings have terminally dried before you get back to water.
A little top dressing over the seed will afford it some extra protection in the first few days. Likewise, overseeding rather than seeding from scratch means that the existing grasses will help to protect the new seedlings as they develop.
You may still find that despite your best efforts there are patches that don't take well, but that can be the case at any time of the year. Those areas can always be overseeded again in the autumn.
On the positive side, with the sun be so high during the day then shady patches are the least shady that they're likely to be so it's easier to get good germination in those areas.
If you're going to be overseeding then you will need to be ready to irrigate it at times. The most critical time is in the first couple of weeks after seeding. The seed will need to be kept moist initially to start germination off, and then not allowed to dry out during the intial phase before it's got a deep enough root to extract water from below the surface.
The new grasses will also be far more drought susceptible for the first few months, so you'll likely need to do some watering throughout the summer if we have hot dry spells, although not so often that they get used to having readily available water near the surface and don't develop a deep root system.
If you can set up sprinklers on a timer for the first couple of weeks then you shouldn't have any problems. Where it can become difficult is if you're out at work, there's a nice hot sunny day and many of the seedlings have terminally dried before you get back to water.
A little top dressing over the seed will afford it some extra protection in the first few days. Likewise, overseeding rather than seeding from scratch means that the existing grasses will help to protect the new seedlings as they develop.
You may still find that despite your best efforts there are patches that don't take well, but that can be the case at any time of the year. Those areas can always be overseeded again in the autumn.
On the positive side, with the sun be so high during the day then shady patches are the least shady that they're likely to be so it's easier to get good germination in those areas.
tperry said:
However the rain today has been pretty hard. Will it mean I have to seed again?
It's unlikely to be an issue. The seed won't yet be in the delicate seedling stage where it could potentially be damaged. Worst case it'll get moved around a bit but if there's not much in the way of run off areas then it won't get moved far.Slowly restoring my Grandfather's cylinder mower. He had a much nicer Atco that he gave to my father, who must have sold or given it away at some point. I suspect this Suffolk Punch replaced the Atco. It's nothing special and objectively should probably be scrapped but I have fond memories of the pride he used to take in his lawn, so the sentimental value is strong. It had sat unused for about 10 years. I got it to a stage where it was running reasonably well so I've started on the cosmetics...
I'm undecided if the handlebars should be dark green or red.
I'm undecided if the handlebars should be dark green or red.
Accelebrate said:
Slowly restoring my Grandfather's cylinder mower. He had a much nicer Atco that he gave to my father, who must have sold or given it away at some point. I suspect this Suffolk Punch replaced the Atco. It's nothing special and objectively should probably be scrapped but I have fond memories of the pride he used to take in his lawn, so the sentimental value is strong. It had sat unused for about 10 years. I got it to a stage where it was running reasonably well so I've started on the cosmetics...
Did you have the cylinder re-ground? If so did you replace the bottom blade? I'm tempted to get a re-ground cylinder for my mower, but not sure if it's a waste without also renewing the bottom blade which surely wears with the cylinder.Accelebrate said:
Slowly restoring my Grandfather's cylinder mower. He had a much nicer Atco that he gave to my father, who must have sold or given it away at some point. I suspect this Suffolk Punch replaced the Atco. It's nothing special and objectively should probably be scrapped but I have fond memories of the pride he used to take in his lawn, so the sentimental value is strong. It had sat unused for about 10 years. I got it to a stage where it was running reasonably well so I've started on the cosmetics...
I'm undecided if the handlebars should be dark green or red.
A fun project. I did something similar although it was just a Mountfield Empress 16. Oil change, throttle cable fixed, new spark plug, blade off and angle grinder applied + general clean up. Good as new, well nearly. Main point is, cost £40 and £10 more to overhaul.I'm undecided if the handlebars should be dark green or red.
Esseesse said:
Did you have the cylinder re-ground? If so did you replace the bottom blade? I'm tempted to get a re-ground cylinder for my mower, but not sure if it's a waste without also renewing the bottom blade which surely wears with the cylinder.
In my case the bottom blade was straight, but tarnished. I attacked the cylinder and bottom blade with a wire brush drill attachment to remove the surface rust, painted the cylinder and then 'backlapped' the cylinder by running it backwards using an electric drill with coarse and then fine valve grinding paste applied to the cutting edge of the cylinder, winding in the cylinder clearance as I went.
Came up quite well and will cut a piece of paper again.
Accelebrate said:
In my case the bottom blade was straight, but tarnished. I attacked the cylinder and bottom blade with a wire brush drill attachment to remove the surface rust, painted the cylinder and then 'backlapped' the cylinder by running it backwards using an electric drill with coarse and then fine valve grinding paste applied to the cutting edge of the cylinder, winding in the cylinder clearance as I went.
Came up quite well and will cut a piece of paper again.
Cool thanks. I have backlapped mine a bit (needs some more) also with an electric drill. Sadly one of the blades has about 1 inch taken out of it at one end so I could do with swapping it out.Came up quite well and will cut a piece of paper again.
Not sure if this will work but here is before and after, in the before you can see were I cleared all the overgrown garden when I moved in did it myself due to lack of £ after buying the place. I was quoted circa £1.2k to rotavate, re-seed and new top soil for the bare areas, but did it myself easter weekend with £120 worth of seeds and half price Qualcast rotavator from Argos for £58 and no new top soil.
Before
Approx 10 weeks later
Before
Approx 10 weeks later
Edited by PostHeads123 on Wednesday 22 June 12:49
Edited by PostHeads123 on Wednesday 22 June 12:52
Edited by PostHeads123 on Wednesday 22 June 12:55
PostHeads123 said:
Not sure if this will work but here is before and after, in the before you can see were I cleared all the overgrown garden when I moved in did it myself due to lack of £ after buying the place. I was quoted circa £1.2k to rotavate, re-seed and new top soil for the bare areas, but did it myself easter weekend with £120 worth of seeds and half price Qualcast rotavator from Argos for £58 and no new top soil.
Before
Approx 10 weeks later
Good result, got to be happy with that after a load of effortBefore
Approx 10 weeks later
Edited by PostHeads123 on Wednesday 22 June 12:49
Edited by PostHeads123 on Wednesday 22 June 12:52
Edited by PostHeads123 on Wednesday 22 June 12:55
Think Id be tempted to have that small tree out though
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