2020 Lawn thread

[wjwren]

^ I once used a shopvac and sucked them all up! Have tried a flame thrower in the past and the latest is Home Defence ant stop, about £5. Works well. They take it back to the nest and it kills them off.

[Whistle]

oyster said:

RC1807 said:

That does look very good.


After a very heavy rain / thunder / hailstorm last night, I went into the garden today and was astonished how many "ant hills" had appeared. I guess they needed to burrow out o save their larvae eggs.... I've now doused each one in liquid to see them off.
Rather surprising how many eggs 'floated up' from each nest!

How are people getting rid of these?

I had 2 large ones appear overnight.

[Chicken Chaser]

About to lay a new lawn out the front of the house where it was once covered in gravel. To the depth of the driveway, it's about 100-120mm. Where the lawn is going is very hard packed clay. How deep should I go and if going deeper, am I better off removing current stuff or just turning it over and adding on top? I'll be seeding lawnsmith classic and watering a lot once it's done.

[r44flyer]

Bare minimum of 150mm of good quality free draining soil, but the more the better. You can keep what soil you have if you work it. Dry ground, heavy duty rotavator, tonnes of soil improver/compost, and possibly some grit, and turn it all in over and over again as deep as you can until well blended. Hard work in clay but doable with effort. Top off with a light topsoil and then seed.

[Chicken Chaser]

r44flyer said:

Bare minimum of 150mm of good quality free draining soil, but the more the better. You can keep what soil you have if you work it. Dry ground, heavy duty rotavator, tonnes of soil improver/compost, and possibly some grit, and turn it all in over and over again as deep as you can until well blended. Hard work in clay but doable with effort. Top off with a light topsoil and then seed.

Thanks, I know grass only grows in the top 50mm or so but it still needs the nutrients. I'm also extending some of the rear lawn after taking an old gravel path out. It's still pretty dark in colour suggesting it's got some nutrients in it, but it's got some 10mm sharp stones in it which should help with drainage but I'll probably mix a bit of sharp sand in as well as some compost in to it. I'll let the rain walking on it settle it down before taking to a finer tilth (or add it) and then seed.

[dhutch]

Some grasses root deeper, but in my understanding you don't really need nutrients beyond 4-6" and actually amazing nutrition is very much optional. Stones in the soil don't really matter, certainly not for anything other than the very surface, maybe within their diameter of the surface for larger m.. So two inchs from the surface for 2" stones, six inches from the surface for 6" rocks.

However grass does not like being water logged, or seriously dry. So while have no experience of clay (where on sandstone bedrock) would be trying to get the cheapest none-clay subsoil I could, maybe even some cheap/used gravel and digging that in quite deep. Also ensuring the gravel path is well mixed into the surrounding area so it doesn't make a strip which is different. Then some nicer/top soil and mix that to a lesser depth. Then a few inches of nice top soil. Leveling and treading in each time. Final level and seed. Then if you're bringing in soil and doing a posh job, 2-5mm of fine topsoil over the seed. Or just rake into the top.

Be interested in others suggestions and learning about options with clay myself.

[r44flyer]

You're correct that grass will grow in a minimal depth of soil, but it will only be happy and look good in perfect conditions. As soon as it's too wet or too dry it will suffer and look awful. As soon as anyone says clay I always suggest turning the soil to a greater depth and churning in material to help break it up.

Our previous house was on heavy clay (and our current house but to a lesser extent) and the lawn was awful until renovated. It sat on a pan of clay a few inches under the surface and with any significant rain it was a bog for days. The deeper you can provide free draining soil the more chance you have of at least creating some kind of soak away to hold water until it can slowly drain away. It obviously depends on lots of factors like adjacent beds or slope etc, and what you're looking for as an emd result.

And there's nothing wrong with clay itself, it's very nutritious, so no need to just get rid of it if you'd rather not, it just needs to be part of a blend of soils.

[AC43]

My lawn went down in 2018. Lasted well through 2019 but coming into 2020 was looking tired - yellowing, full of thatch and patchy. It wasn't helped by the fact that me & the Mrs did a ton planting in March when it was soggy and compacted it badly.

So it's been manually scarified (twice), loosened with a fork, fed three times, and treated with sand, seed & topsoil. It's back to its original state :-)

[dhutch]

What do people think this is?

Assume it some sort of weed grass so have started with a closer cut, but it's quite low lying so I'm not sure I've improved matters! Electric lawn rake?


Cheers

Daniel

[illmonkey]

I've got bloody mushrooms! What do I do?!

[rallye101]

illmonkey said:

I've got bloody mushrooms! What do I do?!

Hahaha, me too! You been doing a lot of watering? I have, that and a summer fertilizer and over seed 3 weeks ago

[illmonkey]

rallye101 said:

illmonkey said:

I've got bloody mushrooms! What do I do?!

Hahaha, me too! You been doing a lot of watering? I have, that and a summer fertilizer and over seed 3 weeks ago

The sky's been watering it a fair bit recently! Prior to that it was a sprinkler twice a week.

You're not concerned?

[rallye101]

[quote=dhutch]What do people think this is?

Assume it some sort of weed grass so have started with a closer cut, but it's quite low lying so I'm not sure I've improved matters! Electric lawn rake?


Cheers

Daniel







[/quot

I had the same issue on page 33, I got a steak knife and slashed across them every few days and over seeded...gone now

[rallye101]

illmonkey said:

The sky's been watering it a fair bit recently! Prior to that it was a sprinkler twice a week.

You're not concerned?

Not at the moment, until someone else comments that we are all doomed!

[Whistle]

I have had lots of mushrooms growing over night in the last week or so.

[rallye101]

Guess it's the crazy weather of the last 12weeks confusing Mother nature somewhat?

[DonkeyApple]

Whistle said:

oyster said:

RC1807 said:

That does look very good.


After a very heavy rain / thunder / hailstorm last night, I went into the garden today and was astonished how many "ant hills" had appeared. I guess they needed to burrow out o save their larvae eggs.... I've now doused each one in liquid to see them off.
Rather surprising how many eggs 'floated up' from each nest!

How are people getting rid of these?

I had 2 large ones appear overnight.

We seem to be for a bit of a dry spell so my plan is to use the scarifier on them as it still has the rake attachment on it. The plan is to set it to the lowest setting and open up the mounds, distribute the sandy soil and then pour some Nippon solution into them.

[wjwren]

To the poster above who put sand on his lawn, what type of sand did you use please.

[BertyFish]

I’m after some help on these weeds please.
They are taking over sections on the rear lawn.
Very satisfying to take out when they are about 20cm hidden under grass.





Only been at this house just over a year and I’ve slowly extended the grass around the outside.
In need of some feed for the old patches. Small patch but I can throw a stone onto Cannock Chase.

[fiatpower]

I want to buy a decent strimmer as the one I have now is awful. It is a flymo with the wire type cutter but it just keeps snapping even with correct use. Any suggestions for one with a better cutting blade (maybe a solid blade rather than the wire type?)?