2017 Lawn thread

[tim0409]

Following last year's thread, I thought I would start a new one for 2017.

I scarified my lawn at the end of 2015 and removed loads of thatch, and after a bit of over-seeding it came back really well during the summer. Is there anything I should be considering between now and the growing season? It's never been aerated/spiked so perhaps I should consider doing that?

[Whistle]

This was mine at its best last summer now it's back to a sea of moss. I will report back at the end of March when I start looking after it again.




God knows why it's upside down, sorry

Edited by Whistle on Sunday 1st January 15:15

[Evanivitch]

I've got 3 small lawns, one recently turfed but the other 2 in need of work.

Both need feed and weed, both need scarifying (I'll hire an electric one).

Best suggestion on when to do both of these?

[Tony Starks]

Any tips on over seeding?

I'm looking to do mine about March here (autumn here), so am looking to get everything ready for then. Waiting for my aerator to turn up, as I've been to every garden centre and diy shop in town and no one sells them.

And just talking to my neighbours it seems our ground is very sandy, so is there anything I can do to help the lawn? Short of a large amount of $$$$ digging it up and putting loads of quality soil down.

Edited by Tony Starks on Monday 2nd January 03:52

[Andehh]

Tony Starks said:

Any tips on over seeding?

I'm looking to do mine about March here (autumn here), so am looking to get everything ready for then. Waiting for my aerator to turn up, as I've been to every garden centre and diy shop in town and no one sells them.

And just talking to my neighbours it seems our ground is very sandy, so is there anything I can do to help the lawn? Short of a large amount of $$$$ digging it up and putting loads of quality soil down.

Edited by Tony Starks on Monday 2nd January 03:52

I over seeded 1/3 of ours mid summer last year. Scarified heavily, bought several bags of top soil, raked them over the lawn area. Seeded & used the flat side of the rake to smooth it out again & watered heavily.

Worked an absolute treat & even yesterday evening looking out the window I could instantly see the area that I did this too & the rest of the lawn that will get done this spring.

[joestifff]

I turfed mine last November (http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=207&t=1607594&i=100)

Did an order on lawnsmith.co.uk purchased New turf fertiliser - http://www.lawnsmith.co.uk/prod/lawn-fertiliser-pr...

It seemed to survive the first frost OK which was two weeks after.

It appears however to have some greyish patches forming, it looks like it's thinning from a distance, up close it looks a bit like cobwebs and thinning. Very hard to describe. Any ideas?? I shall have to get photos.

[8-P]

Evanivitch said:

I've got 3 small lawns, one recently turfed but the other 2 in need of work.

Both need feed and weed, both need scarifying (I'll hire an electric one).

Best suggestion on when to do both of these?

Spring, I did both lawns in about March last year hoping Spring would arrive early, as it was it didnt so my lawn took a while to recover and the seed I had patched and over seeded with also took ages to germinate(it wasnt warm enough) So Id just keep an eye on the weather forecast and play it by ear.

[8-P]

Mowed my lawn today, relatively mild here and the growth was making me twitch!

Looks much better and Im hoping will assist keeping the moss down, that said some of my grass is thinning out badly, I think its last years seeded patches mainly

[Tony Starks]

Andehh said:

I over seeded 1/3 of ours mid summer last year. Scarified heavily, bought several bags of top soil, raked them over the lawn area. Seeded & used the flat side of the rake to smooth it out again & watered heavily.

Worked an absolute treat & even yesterday evening looking out the window I could instantly see the area that I did this too & the rest of the lawn that will get done this spring.

Thanks, ive got a week off soon and my goal is to get cracking on Paspalum removal. Ready to start on the repair work. Its going to get patchy as hell after.

[Craikeybaby]

Still way too wet to consider mowing here.

[MrChips]

Having moved in last year, ive taken on way too many "little projects" so I'm going to get someone in to finish what I'd started in the garden.
The main lawn area was 90% moss when we moved in. In the summer I killed the moss over 3-4 weeks, then about 4 weeks later I rotavated the entire garden with the plan of returfing. I never got round to it.



So.. there'll need to be around 8 tonnes of new topsoil to bring the level up in line with the new sleepers, but in places it won't be more than 1cm deep.

The question now is what can I be doing in advance to help ensure the current soil is as best as possible, and no weeds come through the new turf? I have 2 cats so any chemicals need to be pet safe so I guess this rules out the majority of them?

[Simpo Two]

MrChips said:

So.. there'll need to be around 8 tonnes of new topsoil to bring the level up in line with the new sleepers, but in places it won't be more than 1cm deep.

The question now is what can I be doing in advance to help ensure the current soil is as best as possible, and no weeds come through the new turf? I have 2 cats so any chemicals need to be pet safe so I guess this rules out the majority of them?

Re 1cm of topsoil, mix/rotavate it in so the top 6" is more consistent. Weeds are sure to come through the turf because there will be seeds in the soil; deal with them then.

As for cats, read the label or call the maker if in doubt. The usual phrase is 'Children and pets need not be excluded from treated areas once the spray has dried'. First, you'd be using garden herbicides which are not particularly toxic to animals (unlike insecticides) - glyphosate is least toxic of all - secondly, the amount per m2 after application is very small, and thirdly the animals in question are unlikely to go round licking the leaves. So as usual, common sense applies. Anything you can buy in a garden centre is not dangerous in the scheme of things, or they wouldn't sell it. By contrast however if you buy an agrochemical on the net and drink it neat, expect problems!

[Condi]

Mine has very quickly gone back to its moss infested state, which is a little annoying considering the work which was done last year to remove said moss, and indeed the year before that. If anything it seems to worse than ever this winter, so come March/April I'll have to do a full program of moss killing, scarifying and aerating.

The back lawn needs some more serious work, probably involving a mini digger but that will have to wait for now.

[joestifff]

So I think I have identified "red thread" or "pink mycelium"

What can I do about this, it is in a few patches on my newly laid turf! Is there in fact anything I can do over the winter?

[Simpo Two]

joestifff said:

So I think I have identified "red thread" or "pink mycelium"

What can I do about this, it is in a few patches on my newly laid turf! Is there in fact anything I can do over the winter?

Sir has posh turf! - this is more common on golf greens. I don't think there's any product (lawn fungicide) available in the garden market for it; it's an amenity horticulture thing. Maybe you're over-fertilising so the grass has weak sappy growth?

[joestifff]

Simpo Two said:

Sir has posh turf! - this is more common on golf greens. I don't think there's any product (lawn fungicide) available in the garden market for it; it's an amenity horticulture thing. Maybe you're over-fertilising so the grass has weak sappy growth?

Could be something in this. I did put this on it:

http://www.lawnsmith.co.uk/prod/lawn-fertiliser-pr...

The whole bag was for 85m2 put half on first, then the other half bag on two weeks later, my lawn is probably 40m2 max. So possible that I have over fertilised!!

[Simpo Two]

joestifff said:

Could be something in this. I did put this on it:

http://www.lawnsmith.co.uk/prod/lawn-fertiliser-pr...

The whole bag was for 85m2 put half on first, then the other half bag on two weeks later, my lawn is probably 40m2 max. So possible that I have over fertilised!!

It's not high N but wouldn't have helped. Did the turf really need fertiliser or did you just add some 'to be on the safe side'? I'd imagine that as the weather warms up and the ground dries and the N gets used up the fungus should get bored and go away.

[joestifff]

Simpo Two said:

It's not high N but wouldn't have helped. Did the turf really need fertiliser or did you just add some 'to be on the safe side'? I'd imagine that as the weather warms up and the ground dries and the N gets used up the fungus should get bored and go away.

It probably didn't need it at all. Just wanted to be safe, was buying some other fertiliser for front lawn so thought why not.

Shall monitor over the next few months. Doesn't look horrific, just annoying!

Thanks for your help though.

[Pete-mojsh]

I've recently moved house, it's been a full refurb as it was a right state but we've only got it to house 1.0 version as my wife was 4 weeks from our due date when we got the keys so everything was done in a hurry. The spring/summer job will be the garden, the decking is ok but needs a good clean with a pressure washer and a coat on it, the lawn is a different matter entirely. The previous owners had 7 dogs, the lawn at the back is rutted so badly I'll have to level it out as best I can before reseeding.

I may need some pointers about how to do this efficiently as time is fairly short in supply at the moment, hopefully my daughter will be a bit more settled by the time spring comes around and I can devote a bit of time to it.

[Simpo Two]

joestifff said:

Thanks for your help though.

Happy to share whatever I learned in the industry many years ago. One thing to remember going forwards - the perfect lawn is impossible. When I had access to free lawn products I made the effort; now as long as it's green (grass, weeds or moss) I just keep it cut and don't look too closely!