2018 Lawn thread

[independentLee]

alistair1234 said:

upload image from url

So this is what my lawn looks like as of today. It was a new build nearly 4 years ago, south facing garden that is quite a bit wider than it is deep so the fence at the back blocks pretty much all sunlight in the winter and a foot or 2 closest to the fence in the summer. Weirdly though, that seems to be the best growing part in the summer.

When we first moved in I watered it quite a lot and it looked ok for the first proper summer but since then it’s been poor. It seems to grow really thick in parts and grows very little in others. There aren’t any bald patches, but some parts of the grass just literally don’t seem to grow. Also in the summer I’ve noticed patches where the very top almost seems to look like it has a white chalk on the top of the grass.

No kids to ruin it, we have a male dog, can’t remember if it’s male or female dogs that ruin turf.

What’s the best course of action?

Sharpen your mower blade
Cut it. Hard back and low.
Aerate it with a garden fork, pressing right down and lift the turves almost as though you were going to lift them out. This will get air into and below the root system and will stimulate microbial action. Backbraking but a good hour spent.
Feed it using a feed from Lawnsmith (not a supermarket / garden centre 3 in 1!). Don't overfertilise!
Cut it again at a HIGH cut two weeks later and don't be tempted to reduce the height of cut until it looks good.
Cut it every week!

[Chris Type R]

Might have to get the mower out for a first cut today - looking lovely out.

[richatnort]

Put my ferrous sulfate on tonight. Only took 45 mins but I used the water butts I had so cost me nothing in terms of water which is ace!

Que the black marks all over the lawn now

[bazza white]

Chris Type R said:

Might have to get the mower out for a first cut today - looking lovely out.

Did the first trim on ours today to. Riddled with moss.

[alistair1234]

independentLee said:

Sharpen your mower blade
Cut it. Hard back and low.
Aerate it with a garden fork, pressing right down and lift the turves almost as though you were going to lift them out. This will get air into and below the root system and will stimulate microbial action. Backbraking but a good hour spent.
Feed it using a feed from Lawnsmith (not a supermarket / garden centre 3 in 1!). Don't overfertilise!
Cut it again at a HIGH cut two weeks later and don't be tempted to reduce the height of cut until it looks good.
Cut it every week!

I've cut it last night, (new pictures below) need to get the blades sharpened though as it's nearly 4 years old.

When you say 'Aerate it with a garden fork, pressing right down and lift the turves almost as though you were going to lift them out" what do you mean by turves? As in pull the turf up?

When i've aerated it before i've just pushed the fork down as far as possible. Do you then mean pull the fork towards me to make the holes bigger?

Also, after cutting it, it does seem like there is moss in some places and dead grass (yellow grass?) in others. Will lawn feed this or does it need re-seeding?






photo upload sites

Edited by alistair1234 on Friday 6th April 10:37

[Chris Type R]

^ the moss certainly looks healthy !

[Craikeybaby]

Craikeybaby said:

Last year my lawn project was to straighten the lawn, taking over some of the flower bed.

It appears we had missed some of the bulbs...


Lawn fail by Lewis Craik, on Flickr

Other than the bulbs coming through it seems like my scarify/overseed from the autumn didn't turn out too well, the lawn has got some moss back, the odd weed and some yellowing. The weed grasses don't seem to have returned though. My plan for the spring, probably late April now, is for another scarify and overseed.

The mid-lawn flowerbed has now grown to be the full length of the lawn - will post a photo later.

The lawn really needs to be cut today, so I’m thinking just to avoid this section, then wait until the flowers have gone and put lawn weed killer on the plants. Then strim that area when they have died back. Or am I better off just mowing them down?

I also need to do the iron sulphate as there’s a lot of moss - I understand this can stain paths, any tips for not getting it on/cleaning it off my new sandstone path?

[langtounlad]

Do it on a dry day and quickly go round afterwards with a leaf blower to clear the patio stonework areas.

[Evanivitch]

Found myself a Bosch Rotak 32 on gumtree today, I've got 3 small lawns but the hover-mo was starting to annoy me and the lack of cut height control was equally annoying.

[Craikeybaby]

langtounlad said:

Do it on a dry day and quickly go round afterwards with a leaf blower to clear the patio stonework areas.

Is that with the idea of drying ASAP before it soaks in?


Lawn fail by Lewis Craik, on Flickr

Anyway, the lawn looks a mess, I cut it, avoiding the last few runs where the flowers are. But even after a cut on the highest setting it looks patchy and feels very bumpy underfoot. The patch where the flowers are has settled, and is now about an inch lower than the rest of the lawn. So I've got my work cut out this spring.

[independentLee]

Push the fork in as deep as you can. Pull the handle of the fork towards you and it will lift the turves.

Weeds:
You need to get a weeder fork (thin and long tines) and remove them getting the long tap root out.

Follow up with lawn friendly weedkiller and spray on any new weeds.

Moss:
Buy some ferrous sulphate, dilute 50:1 and apply with watering can. After 7-10 days rake out the dead blackened moss.

Buy The Lawn Book - Dr Hessayon

[steveo3002]

got a few shaded parts of the lawn where the grass is patchy , ive only ever used general purpose grass seed , does the shady area branded stuff work as advertised ? any particular brand /type i should seek out?

[langtounlad]

Craikeybaby said:

langtounlad said:

Do it on a dry day and quickly go round afterwards with a leaf blower to clear the patio stonework areas.

Is that with the idea of drying ASAP before it soaks in?

Anyway, the lawn looks a mess, I cut it, avoiding the last few runs where the flowers are. But even after a cut on the highest setting it looks patchy and feels very bumpy underfoot. The patch where the flowers are has settled, and is now about an inch lower than the rest of the lawn. So I've got my work cut out this spring.

I apply lawn treatment in granule form using a spreader. My recommendation was to then blow the granules that inevitably land on the patio back onto the grass.

[Craikeybaby]

Ahhh. The ferrous sulphate is applied with a watering can. I use a drop spreader for the granules and that is pretty accurate.

[nadger]

alistair1234 said:

independentLee said:

Sharpen your mower blade
Cut it. Hard back and low.
Aerate it with a garden fork, pressing right down and lift the turves almost as though you were going to lift them out. This will get air into and below the root system and will stimulate microbial action. Backbraking but a good hour spent.
Feed it using a feed from Lawnsmith (not a supermarket / garden centre 3 in 1!). Don't overfertilise!
Cut it again at a HIGH cut two weeks later and don't be tempted to reduce the height of cut until it looks good.
Cut it every week!

I've cut it last night, (new pictures below) need to get the blades sharpened though as it's nearly 4 years old.

When you say 'Aerate it with a garden fork, pressing right down and lift the turves almost as though you were going to lift them out" what do you mean by turves? As in pull the turf up?

When i've aerated it before i've just pushed the fork down as far as possible. Do you then mean pull the fork towards me to make the holes bigger?

Also, after cutting it, it does seem like there is moss in some places and dead grass (yellow grass?) in others. Will lawn feed this or does it need re-seeding?






photo upload sites

Edited by alistair1234 on Friday 6th April 10:37

Is say you need -
1. Ferrous sulphate on it, to kill the moss. Leave a few days till the moss turns black.
2. Scarify the lawn. You can do this with a rake r a scarifier l. This will pull out the dead thatch and moss
3. Re-seed. I always do this just after scarifying, as it tends to mean the top of the soil is scraped up a bit. Once I’ve seeded I always cover with top soil/compost. Seems to do the trick for me!

[MrChips]

Warning: Pic heavy!!

So we had new turf laid last year and overall I was fairly pleased with it. Sadly over winter some bulbs have flowered, i think they were there about 2 years ago as they're in an area where we had a large tree removed. This was from 2 weeks ago:







I've ended up digging them all out completely. Some of the bulbs were down about 40cm so underneath the level that was prepped for the turf last year.

What I also noticed was a large number of worm casts across all areas of the lawn. I know this is not a bad thing except with the ground being so damp, and there being so many, it was proving difficult to remove them or even just spread them around back into the soil.








I did a very high cut last week just to start off for the year, and today we were lucky enough to have warm and bright conditions for the whole day so i've been pretty productive! I've managed to give it a slightly closer cut (more so than i would normally at this stage) so that i could then rake out a lot of the thatch. There isn't really any moss that I can see which is good, and the rake also helped pull up some of the worm casts.

I then ran a spiked roller over it for a bit of aeration. This was followed by an overseeding, then some spring fertiliser spread evenly across the full lawn. This is where i'm up to now:







Next steps/issues are:

1) Buy a roller to help push the seed down (i did already walk it all in), and i'm hoping this will also help with making it a bit more level.
2) The lawn is very very lumpy, so i need to top dress. Any suggestions on suppliers and what to look out for?
3) Annoyingly, the lawn is actually quite a bit higher than i'd like, in that the ground level is higher than the lawn edging, meaning the soil is spilling out over the silver edging bricks you can see. I did ask the landscaper to lay it low however they ignored this stating that they know best. I'm guessing there's not much i can really do now, especially as i need to top dress?
4) Work out a planting scheme for the borders!

Comments and advice very welcome

Edited by MrChips on Saturday 7th April 23:03

[MDMA .]

First cut this year. Couldn't believe how much moss was in it. Never known it to be so bad. Anyway, two passes with the scarifier has got most of it out. Been over it with moss killer earlier so will see what it's like next week.

[Blackpuddin]

I've just watered my lawns with iron sulphate. Not sure it's going to work as my natural stinginess made me water it down beyond the recommended mix, but anyhoo, how long is it best to leave that before attacking the moss with the trusty rake? No sign of any blackness yet after a day.

[scott2c]

Despite putting a lot of effort in the past couple of years, this end of winter my lawn seems to have looked the worse it has. Is it just due to the wet and snowy winter we've had?

What are these white patches that appear in about 70% of my lawn and how to fix?

[Patrick Bateman]

Blackpuddin said:

I've just watered my lawns with iron sulphate. Not sure it's going to work as my natural stinginess made me water it down beyond the recommended mix, but anyhoo, how long is it best to leave that before attacking the moss with the trusty rake? No sign of any blackness yet after a day.

The lawnsmith website will keep you right on this stuff.

The total amount of iron sulphate that's down per square metre will be what matters.