2015 Lawn thread

[jagnet]

C.A.R. said:

Can someone explain overseeding please? I'm thinking it could be rather self explanatory, but wondered if there was anything else to
it.

Reasons to over seed
How to over seed

^ explains it better than I can

[sidekickdmr]

Can I please join this thread and ask how to sort out my frankly dredful lawn?

Just gave it a cut today and it's depressing me

Some pics:







We do have dogs, so dog pee probally isn't helping, this also means what ever I sprinkle/spray can't be harmful for dogs

[Philemon]

You are cutting too low, frequently and not watering enough. Stop cutting completely for two weeks, and water for an hour every evening, unless it has rained during the day. Use the opportunity to have the blade of your mower sharpened.

After our week, weed and feed. One you have done so, do not let you grass dry. Do not cut. Your weeds will get worse and then die off. After the next week has passed, mow the lawn before watering with the most set to cut just the top third of the blade. Continue to water and cut again after 4-5 days. Don't lower your cut until after you have, the lawn looks better after a day.

One it is looking better, feed it (no weed) and continue to cut it once a week. Scarify end September and over seed it afterwards. Autumn feed end October.

[bazza white]

Anyone help with this, we had new turf layer down about 8 weeks ago. Thought it was crap when it went down tbh but now its grown its not nice at all. Its quite wiry (sp) blades on top are OK but they sit 3 or 4 inches above the ground so on a second cut its horrid underneath. It as healthy as its growing like hell, will cutting it back to 2 inches and maintaining it bring back the blades straight out the ground.

Is it all weeds or or is it grass that's just been allowed to grow long. I have no idea from here.


[url|http://thumbsnap.com/rR6aMqaa[/url]

[R8VXF]

I hope I haven't fed the local avian population for the next few weeks. Plenty of seed in reserve though https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=F8a6...

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

sidekickdmr said:

Can I please join this thread and ask how to sort out my frankly dredful lawn?

Just gave it a cut today and it's depressing me

I agree with Philemon: you are mowing that lawn far too short. It is also looking parched, and poorly fed.

It's a bit late in the season to do much in terms of renovation, but it'll start to look better if you stop mowing it altogether and water it thoroughly - I'd put a sprinkler on it for at least an hour, every other day for a week. You want to give it a nice deep soak. And I agree with Philemon's strategy of letting it start to recover for a week before applying a feed. Use a feed-only product: you don't want to be stressing that lawn with weedkiller and/or moss killer; sorting out the weeds can come later once you've got the grass growing again. My favourite is Scott's "Lawn Builder", which you can use with confidence without risk of scorching. Personally I use a drop spreader to apply granular feed; the Scott's "Even Green" one works for me.

Once you've softened the ground with some watering, you might want to consider getting a roller aerator - basically a small plastic drum with metal spikes and a handle to push it. Spiking the ground will help the water penetrate further. Alternatively, if your lawn isn't too big then you could spike every six inches with a garden fork, using the age-old technique of "stick it in, wiggle it about a bit, then pull out".

Only start mowing again once the grass is growing strongly, which might take 2 or 3 weeks, and then start with your mower set to a fairly long height. As we go into the hottest part of the year (ha ha!) you should be mowing a bit longer anyway. Only lower your cut when the grass is starting to look lush, and then do it gradually and never go anywhere near as low as you're currently cutting.

That's probably enough advice for you to be getting on with for the moment, but do stick around, ask questions and report back with pictures in a week or two to let us know how things are going, and we can help you take the next steps.

Edited to add: Looking again at your pictures, I'm convinced your lawn is malnourished. The clue is the patches where I presume your dog has weed: there's a dead patch in the middle, but the ring around it is lush from the boost of nitrogen in the urine. Yep: stop mowing, water it and feed it - it'll be looking way better in 2 or 3 weeks.

Edited by Dr Mike Oxgreen on Sunday 7th June 20:48

[sidekickdmr]

Philemon said:

You are cutting too low, frequently and not watering enough. Stop cutting completely for two weeks, and water for an hour every evening, unless it has rained during the day. Use the opportunity to have the blade of your mower sharpened.

After our week, weed and feed. One you have done so, do not let you grass dry. Do not cut. Your weeds will get worse and then die off. After the next week has passed, mow the lawn before watering with the most set to cut just the top third of the blade. Continue to water and cut again after 4-5 days. Don't lower your cut until after you have, the lawn looks better after a day.

One it is looking better, feed it (no weed) and continue to cut it once a week. Scarify end September and over seed it afterwards. Autumn feed end October.

Cutting too low, possibly

Cutting too frequently, every 2 or 3 weeks, this cut was exactly 2 weeks after the last, so not that frequent.

Yes I don't water it at all, I shall start

Blade sharpened, the lawn mower is only about 3 months old, been used about 5 times, you think it needs sharpening?

What about the weeds/moss, nothing you have suggested will fix/remove them surely?

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

bazza white said:

Anyone help with this, we had new turf layer down about 8 weeks ago. Thought it was crap when it went down tbh but now its grown its not nice at all. Its quite wiry (sp) blades on top are OK but they sit 3 or 4 inches above the ground so on a second cut its horrid underneath. It as healthy as its growing like hell, will cutting it back to 2 inches and maintaining it bring back the blades straight out the ground.

Is it all weeds or or is it grass that's just been allowed to grow long. I have no idea from here.


[url|http://thumbsnap.com/rR6aMqaa[/url]

Your second picture does seem to show some very broad, coarse grasses - exactly the kind of thing I'm fighting against myself, and not what you'd expect to find in newly laid turf. I'm experimenting with bicarbonate of soda in a very light dusting, which seems to kill weed grasses - I hope to report soon once I've decided if it's a good idea.

[anonymous-user]

the first advice thread was to feed and weed after two weeks of recovery...

[sidekickdmr]

Im off to the garden with the sprinkler now, ill give it a good hours soak as recommended

[bazza white]

Dr Mike Oxgreen said:

Your second picture does seem to show some very broad, coarse grasses - exactly the kind of thing I'm fighting against myself, and not what you'd expect to find in newly laid turf. I'm experimenting with bicarbonate of soda in a very light dusting, which seems to kill weed grasses - I hope to report soon once I've decided if it's a good idea.

Yep broad and coarse is exactly what it is, cut it today and its not good. Even the rabbit doesn't like walking on it.

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

sidekickdmr said:

this cut was exactly 2 weeks after the last, so not that frequent.

Have to admit, "too frequently" was a bit of Philemon's analysis that I didn't agree with, and if that cut was after 2 weeks then it explains why your lawn is looking sorry for itself. You've cut it very short, after two weeks' worth of growth. The golden rule is never remove more than about a third of the grass's length at one cut, otherwise you'll shock the grass and it'll go brown. In my view, mowing should be at least once a week, and preferably more - I mow about twice a week.

sidekickdmr said:

What about the weeds/moss, nothing you have suggested will fix/remove them surely?

Personally, I'd concentrate on letting the grass recover first and don't worry about the weeds and moss. If you can get the grass growing strongly then it'll be in better shape to tolerate the weedkiller and/or moss killer. If it were later in the year (August/September) my advice would be different: I'd say nuke the weeds and moss, scarify and then overseed. But it's not the right time to be doing that now, so I suggest nurturing the grass as best you can for now.

[Denis O]

R8VXF said:

I hope I haven't fed the local avian population for the next few weeks. Plenty of seed in reserve though https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=F8a6...

My biggest problem with seed is ants and not birds.

When we sowed our lawn it looked at times as though the whole area was moving as multi billions of ants carried seed away to their nests. It's amazing that there was enough seed left to germinate after these little 6 legged buggers had done their worst.

[R8VXF]

Denis O said:

R8VXF said:

I hope I haven't fed the local avian population for the next few weeks. Plenty of seed in reserve though https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=F8a6...

My biggest problem with seed is ants and not birds.

When we sowed our lawn it looked at times as though the whole area was moving as multi billions of ants carried seed away to their nests. It's amazing that there was enough seed left to germinate after these little 6 legged buggers had done their worst.

Hadn't even thought about ants! I think our cats have killed off most of the local mouse population so was only worrying about the birds. Might have to put ant traps out if I see any activity from them.

[Willeh85]

Has anyone got any recommendations for sprinklers so I can leave it on for an hour or so?

I'm thinking about getting a timed one so it gets some water most days.

[R8VXF]

Willeh85 said:

Has anyone got any recommendations for sprinklers so I can leave it on for an hour or so?

I'm thinking about getting a timed one so it gets some water most days.

I might be selling one of these (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00KLA5D4W?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00) timers as think I need to upgrade to one that can support a 6 zone distributor. If you don't mind having a hose lying about the garden, then I would look at getting a basic rotating sprinkler. Have had a couple of oscillating bar sprinklers and they always seem to break. See my video above if you want to see what a plumbed in system is like.

[hacksaw]

Dr Mike Oxgreen said:

bazza white said:

Anyone help with this, we had new turf layer down about 8 weeks ago. Thought it was crap when it went down tbh but now its grown its not nice at all. Its quite wiry (sp) blades on top are OK but they sit 3 or 4 inches above the ground so on a second cut its horrid underneath. It as healthy as its growing like hell, will cutting it back to 2 inches and maintaining it bring back the blades straight out the ground.

Is it all weeds or or is it grass that's just been allowed to grow long. I have no idea from here.


[url|http://thumbsnap.com/rR6aMqaa[/url]

Your second picture does seem to show some very broad, coarse grasses - exactly the kind of thing I'm fighting against myself, and not what you'd expect to find in newly laid turf. I'm experimenting with bicarbonate of soda in a very light dusting, which seems to kill weed grasses - I hope to report soon once I've decided if it's a good idea.

I'm also battling some coarse patches in my lawn, please do let us know how you get on with the Bi-carb!

[Some Gump]

sidekickdmr said:

lawn

IMO you need to fertilise, big time. Where your dog wees is scortched from ammonia - but the rings around it are doing really well because of the nitrogen in that ammonia.

I'd be using fertiliser - either the spray stuff, or the one you spread via roller. I made the mistake of using the hand pour ones from homebase, and ended up with a stripy lawn which I'm now trying to fix!

Once you have it all growing nicely, you can tackle the weeds for next year in the autumn. I reckon if you killed them off now, you'd just end up with bare earth, and more weeds coming back anyway.

[Joe-xd6qe]

I love this thread, really impressed with peoples progress.

How do you get those lovely stripes? I have a Honda Izy. does a nice cut, may need the blades sharpening though!

I have just moved into a new build, so more than likely very cheap/bad quality turf. Not majorly concerned about rear garden (North East facing) as getting completely redone next year, but front grass is looking a bit dire. Will get some photos up later.

I think I may be cutting it too short, but you guys are the experts.

[R8VXF]

Joe-xd6qe said:

How do you get those lovely stripes?

You either need a mower with a roller, a separate roller or you can brush it when wet