2015 Lawn thread
Discussion
jagnet said:
MGJohn said:
Back to the lawns. Selective weedkillers were one time available for lawns. In the H&S UK we now live in are such lawn treatments or other effective remedies still available ?
Fortunately they are 
Resolva and Verdone lawn weedkillers are both available off most shelves and do a decent job of it. I'd get one in a concentrate, and the other in a ready spray. What the first fails to finish, the second should do the job. Which way around doesn't really matter too much.Once the weeds are dealt with I'd feed and overseed to thicken the lawn and help prevent the weeds returning. I'd give some thought to scarifying and aerating as well, especially as this is the ideal time to be doing so.
With a nice healthy lawn the weeds become much less of a problem.
The plants in my borders are looking intensely green and healthy. Largely because the lawn is brown and dead!
Scarifier should arrive in the morning. It'll be a scorched earth policy.
I think I'm going to borrow Mr Jagnet's idea of drilling with an auger bit, although I'll just do a small area near the patio that gets rather compacted. Think I'll in-fill with ericaceous mixed with sand, to help adjust the pH which I suspect is on the neutral-to-alkaline side.
Scarifier should arrive in the morning. It'll be a scorched earth policy.
I think I'm going to borrow Mr Jagnet's idea of drilling with an auger bit, although I'll just do a small area near the patio that gets rather compacted. Think I'll in-fill with ericaceous mixed with sand, to help adjust the pH which I suspect is on the neutral-to-alkaline side.
MGJohn said:
Thanks for the useful information jagnet.
Yw Dr Mike Oxgreen said:
The plants in my borders are looking intensely green and healthy. Largely because the lawn is brown and dead!
Scarifier should arrive in the morning. It'll be a scorched earth policy.
I think I'm going to borrow Mr Jagnet's idea of drilling with an auger bit, although I'll just do a small area near the patio that gets rather compacted. Think I'll in-fill with ericaceous mixed with sand, to help adjust the pH which I suspect is on the neutral-to-alkaline side.
It's interesting how our perception of colour changes. My existing grasses emerging through the top dressing are similar, looking much much greener than normal against the dark background.Scarifier should arrive in the morning. It'll be a scorched earth policy.
I think I'm going to borrow Mr Jagnet's idea of drilling with an auger bit, although I'll just do a small area near the patio that gets rather compacted. Think I'll in-fill with ericaceous mixed with sand, to help adjust the pH which I suspect is on the neutral-to-alkaline side.
The ericaceous mix sounds like a good idea for gently acidifying the soil, and one that I hadn't thought of.
Well, this is what my glyphosated lawn looked like this morning:
And after three passes with the scarifier (two of which on its deepest setting), several mowings, and seemingly endless raking and taking debris to the tip, it looks... er, almost exactly the same:
Lots more to do tomorrow while I've still got the scarifier. Ideally I'd like to reach a stage where it's mostly bare earth. That seems a long way away at the moment!
And after three passes with the scarifier (two of which on its deepest setting), several mowings, and seemingly endless raking and taking debris to the tip, it looks... er, almost exactly the same:
Lots more to do tomorrow while I've still got the scarifier. Ideally I'd like to reach a stage where it's mostly bare earth. That seems a long way away at the moment!
Dr Mike Oxgreen said:
top scarifying. I can just about imagine how much stuff has come out of that lawn already. Presumably you're already on first name terms with most of the tip staff after today? At least you've been lucky with the weather. Yesterday's rain would've made that interesting.
Probably about eight wheelie bins full so far, and since I can only fit one in the car at a time, yes it has resulted in many trips! The helpful chap at the tip who always gave me a hand if he was free gave me a slightly funny look last time, as if to say "you again - WTF are you doing?"
Actually my second picture above doesn't really do it justice. Perhaps the different light disguises the fact that there is a fair amount of exposed soil now.
The weather has been very kind. It threatened to rain at one point, but decided against it. Tomorrow is looking good as well.
There was a minor disaster when the scarifier caught the cable that feeds the pond pump - it must have been a bit close to the lawn surface at one point. I had to spend a while disentangling mangled cable from the scarifier; I'll just have to hope that the 12V power supply has good enough short-circuit protection that it hasn't fried itself. That will need rewiring and burying - perhaps a bit deeper this time!
I'm fairly confident I should finish the scarifying tomorrow, perhaps with enough time to try my hand at oil exploration by drilling near the patio area. Who knows, maybe I'll be able to retire early...
Actually my second picture above doesn't really do it justice. Perhaps the different light disguises the fact that there is a fair amount of exposed soil now.
The weather has been very kind. It threatened to rain at one point, but decided against it. Tomorrow is looking good as well.
There was a minor disaster when the scarifier caught the cable that feeds the pond pump - it must have been a bit close to the lawn surface at one point. I had to spend a while disentangling mangled cable from the scarifier; I'll just have to hope that the 12V power supply has good enough short-circuit protection that it hasn't fried itself. That will need rewiring and burying - perhaps a bit deeper this time!
I'm fairly confident I should finish the scarifying tomorrow, perhaps with enough time to try my hand at oil exploration by drilling near the patio area. Who knows, maybe I'll be able to retire early...
Dr Mike Oxgreen said:
Probably about eight wheelie bins full so far, and since I can only fit one in the car at a time, yes it has resulted in many trips! The helpful chap at the tip who always gave me a hand if he was free gave me a slightly funny look last time, as if to say "you again - WTF are you doing?"
Actually my second picture above doesn't really do it justice. Perhaps the different light disguises the fact that there is a fair amount of exposed soil now.
The weather has been very kind. It threatened to rain at one point, but decided against it. Tomorrow is looking good as well.
There was a minor disaster when the scarifier caught the cable that feeds the pond pump - it must have been a bit close to the lawn surface at one point. I had to spend a while disentangling mangled cable from the scarifier; I'll just have to hope that the 12V power supply has good enough short-circuit protection that it hasn't fried itself. That will need rewiring and burying - perhaps a bit deeper this time!
I'm fairly confident I should finish the scarifying tomorrow, perhaps with enough time to try my hand at oil exploration by drilling near the patio area. Who knows, maybe I'll be able to retire early...
That should probably have been armoured cable anyway I'd have thought. Looking forward to seeing the progress.Actually my second picture above doesn't really do it justice. Perhaps the different light disguises the fact that there is a fair amount of exposed soil now.
The weather has been very kind. It threatened to rain at one point, but decided against it. Tomorrow is looking good as well.
There was a minor disaster when the scarifier caught the cable that feeds the pond pump - it must have been a bit close to the lawn surface at one point. I had to spend a while disentangling mangled cable from the scarifier; I'll just have to hope that the 12V power supply has good enough short-circuit protection that it hasn't fried itself. That will need rewiring and burying - perhaps a bit deeper this time!
I'm fairly confident I should finish the scarifying tomorrow, perhaps with enough time to try my hand at oil exploration by drilling near the patio area. Who knows, maybe I'll be able to retire early...
Some inspiring posts here, I'm about to scarify a much neglected lawn and will need to reseed afterwards, who is the PH preferred seed supplier. Not looking for anything delicate just some utility blend. Google throws up any number of outfits but the personal recommendation is always preferred.
Thanks in advance
Dave
Thanks in advance
Dave
ManFromDelmonte said:
That should probably have been armoured cable anyway I'd have thought. Looking forward to seeing the progress.
There's no safety reason for it to be armoured cable. It's only 12V. Armoured cable might have done significant damage to the scarifier as well.Anyway, I've re-wired it today, and it seems the power supply has good enough short-circuit protection and it has survived. Yay! When I re-bury the cable I'll make doubly sure there aren't any ends poking up that could get caught in a scarifier again.
Today I've done a few more scarifying passes, more mowing, more tip trips - and although there's still a fair amount of dead grass, there's a decent amount of bare soil for the seed to germinate in as well. The remaining dead grass might even help by providing some shelter to the emerging seedlings.
I also bought some bags of topsoil from Wickes - this is an ideal opportunity to fill in some depressions. It claims to have a pH between 5.5 and 6.0, so I'll probably use that on its own (with a bit of sand) to fill in the decompaction holes rather than use ericaceous.
There won't be any progress tomorrow (Saturday) as I'm off to RAF Brize Norton with my father-in-law in his Daimler V8-250. They're having some kind family open day and have asked local classic car owners to show off their cars. There's even the possibility of a flight in a Hercules!!
As above, you can't go wrong with The Lawnsmith. Good quality seeds in easy to understand mixes that actually specify what varieties and cultivars you're getting (unlike those from the DIY sheds).
Now that I'm waiting for the seed to germinate on the lawn, I started making progress this afternoon on the old concrete path that's been annoying me for ages for a) being cracked and b) being concrete. Sounds like the perfect excuse to extend the lawn
Out with the sledgehammer and pickaxe:
There's clearly been a path there for a very long time. I doubt it'll have Time Team rushing to the phone, but there was a couple of interesting finds amongst the rubble:
The section of anchovy paste lid would appear to be part of a jar of Burgess’s Genuine Anchovy Paste, circa 1880, which would tie in with the age of the house.
So in over 130 years nobody has thought to turn the path into part of the lawn, because that would be a ridiculous thing to do with the amount of foot traffic it gets. Until now anyway
Now that I'm waiting for the seed to germinate on the lawn, I started making progress this afternoon on the old concrete path that's been annoying me for ages for a) being cracked and b) being concrete. Sounds like the perfect excuse to extend the lawn
Out with the sledgehammer and pickaxe:
There's clearly been a path there for a very long time. I doubt it'll have Time Team rushing to the phone, but there was a couple of interesting finds amongst the rubble:
The section of anchovy paste lid would appear to be part of a jar of Burgess’s Genuine Anchovy Paste, circa 1880, which would tie in with the age of the house.
So in over 130 years nobody has thought to turn the path into part of the lawn, because that would be a ridiculous thing to do with the amount of foot traffic it gets. Until now anyway
Personally I use The Grass Seed Store for my seed, simply because I discovered them before I discovered LawnSmith, and I've stuck with what I know. However, I'm using LawnSmith starter fertiliser, largely because their instructions provide a calibration setting for my particular drop-spreader.
I've just gone with Lawnsmith too based on this thread. 5kg of Easy Green Seed and 5kg of starter fertiliser on it's way.
I've also just bought an Evergreen easy spreader off ebay, hopefully it'll work ok for 20quid.
It's just a waiting game now, the grass is starting to brown a little, 3 days in now. I'm on edge about it as it rained about 5hours after I'd applied the glyphosate, finger and toes crossed!! I'll give it a week then its getting hit with the scarifier.
I've also just bought an Evergreen easy spreader off ebay, hopefully it'll work ok for 20quid.
It's just a waiting game now, the grass is starting to brown a little, 3 days in now. I'm on edge about it as it rained about 5hours after I'd applied the glyphosate, finger and toes crossed!! I'll give it a week then its getting hit with the scarifier.
Update from me, ended july with the lawn looking like this
Glyphosated the lot and left for 3 weeks
Bought a new mower locally 14" Atco balmoral with scarifier attachment 3 years old £300.
Hired a rotivator but made the mistake of not removing the dead grass first which meant that the chunks of dead grass ended up 200mm under the soil which was fun to dig out!
Have spent the last 2 weeks levelling out nearly there now roughly 2 days worth of work left I reckon. Have just ordered 6 pop up ralnbird sprinklers and manifold/fittings so have to dig the trenches for that down the middle when I got the final level worked out. Hopefully start seeding next week have ordered lawn smith ornamental seed and starter fertiliser so will throw the fertiliser down this week when it arrives (can it be left on the top or is it dug into soil?). And got horticultural fleece to put down over the seed as we get loads of birds in the garden.
Glyphosated the lot and left for 3 weeks
Bought a new mower locally 14" Atco balmoral with scarifier attachment 3 years old £300.
Hired a rotivator but made the mistake of not removing the dead grass first which meant that the chunks of dead grass ended up 200mm under the soil which was fun to dig out!
Have spent the last 2 weeks levelling out nearly there now roughly 2 days worth of work left I reckon. Have just ordered 6 pop up ralnbird sprinklers and manifold/fittings so have to dig the trenches for that down the middle when I got the final level worked out. Hopefully start seeding next week have ordered lawn smith ornamental seed and starter fertiliser so will throw the fertiliser down this week when it arrives (can it be left on the top or is it dug into soil?). And got horticultural fleece to put down over the seed as we get loads of birds in the garden.
hacksaw said:
Scarifying the lawn, seems like a good idea, something I've only previously done by hand, so this time I bought a machine to make life easier / do a better job. Holy s
t, it looks like the battle of the Somme now! Re seeded and praying.
It's amazing how much comes up with a proper scarifier, even on a lawn that's done regularly. On one that's not had it done in a long time, or ever, you do wonder if it'll ever recover from it t, it looks like the battle of the Somme now! Re seeded and praying. moles said:
Update from me
That's a huge amount of work that you've achieved in a short space of time. The starter fertiliser can either be left on top or raked into the surface, it'll work just as well either way.
Annoyingly, rain has stopped play on my concrete path to lawn conversion today. It's been slow going digging out the top 12+ inches of sand, cleaning it of half a tonne of concrete / rubble / bitumen / slaked lime / rubbish and mixing it with a little sharp sand and compost to improve drainage. That mix will form the base layer over the top of ballast, with the top 4 to 5 inches then having gradually higher proportions of sharp sand and compost plus other amendments added.
As can be seen from the puddles, the existing sand on its own has terrible drainage.
So far I've only fallen into the hole once whilst working on it
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