2018 Lawn thread

[8-P]

Too late to scarify? Weather for next 2 weeks looks good and it’s still growing

[Johnnytheboy]

8-P said:

Too late to scarify? Weather for next 2 weeks looks good and it’s still growing

Also too late to overseed? Finally looks like a few days rain next week.

[dhutch]

8-P said:

Too late to scarify? Weather for next 2 weeks looks good and it’s still growing

No expert, but I see no reason not to.

By scarify do you mean electric lawn rake (moss, yarrow, etc) or do you mean, blades the cut into the lawn (for thatch) ? I ask as I only recently found there where two things people loosely refer to as a scarfier.

Either way, while no expert, as discussed above most of the country isnt that cold yet so as you suggest, as long as your not in a cold bit it seems like you should be ok but it must be getting border line atleast for proper scarifiing, maybe less of an issue on a light electric raking.

Anyone elses input welcome!

Daniel

Edited by dhutch on Tuesday 2nd October 09:33

[deckster]

Johnnytheboy said:

8-P said:

Too late to scarify? Weather for next 2 weeks looks good and it’s still growing

Also too late to overseed? Finally looks like a few days rain next week.

Personally, I'd not scarify now. Overnight temperatures are low and growth will be very slow so you have a real risk of causing damage which won't repair itself, meaning that you'll have a mossy nightmare come the new year. Leave it till the spring I'd say.

Overseeding, can't cause any harm but again chances of germination and significant growth are relatively slim. You might get lucky though so doesn't hurt to try if you don't have anything better to do of a weekend.

[Patrick Bateman]

I'd be tempted to use iron sulphate a couple of times over the winter and scarify in spring.

[tim0409]

I made the mistake of scarifying and over-seeding this time last year and it didn't take and looked really poor until Spring. That said, I'm in Scotland and it's obviously cooler here. The growth has really slowed in the last two weeks; I fed it 10 days ago and cut it today and I'm really happy with the way it is looking going into Winter (for once!)

[Johnnytheboy]

deckster said:

Johnnytheboy said:

8-P said:

Too late to scarify? Weather for next 2 weeks looks good and it’s still growing

Also too late to overseed? Finally looks like a few days rain next week.

Personally, I'd not scarify now. Overnight temperatures are low and growth will be very slow so you have a real risk of causing damage which won't repair itself, meaning that you'll have a mossy nightmare come the new year. Leave it till the spring I'd say.

Overseeding, can't cause any harm but again chances of germination and significant growth are relatively slim. You might get lucky though so doesn't hurt to try if you don't have anything better to do of a weekend.

I'm tempted because I bought a bag of wildly expensive grass seed this spring, didn't use it because it was so dry, so now if I don't use it, it'll be a year old before it sees service.

So it's 'put it down now and nothing happens' vs. 'put it down in the spring and nothing happens'.

Plus I'm in Dorset...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/dt10

...and it's still quite mild for the foreseeable...

[Nick_MSM]

I need to scarify and overseed/level the top two lawns but have decided against it this year (Sussex). Going to tackle it in early spring weather permitting. Frustrating but with a million other jobs in the house and outside I've just run out of time. I would wait until the spring personally, temperatures have definitely dropped considerably over night.

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

I’d say if you’re in a mild area of the fairly far south then you can still scarify and overseed, but you need to get on with it straight away. Anywhere further north than about Oxfordshire and I don’t think I would now.

We’re forecast a mild spell for the next week or so, but as the last week to ten days have shown, we can get cold nights.

I scarified on the 13/14th September (in Surrey), and the lawn has recovered reasonably well so far and germination has been okay, but it’s got a lot more recovery to do and it has definitely slowed down due to the cold nights we’ve had recently. I’ve vowed that next year I’ll do it a week or two earlier.

[Johnnytheboy]

I've been waiting for rain! High night temps are no use if the ground is bone dry. But next week looks damp.

[WinstonWolf]

Nick_MSM said:

I need to scarify and overseed/level the top two lawns but have decided against it this year (Sussex). Going to tackle it in early spring weather permitting. Frustrating but with a million other jobs in the house and outside I've just run out of time. I would wait until the spring personally, temperatures have definitely dropped considerably over night.

I was going to do mine now but I'm waiting till spring to see if any more recovers over winter. About 1/3 of my lawn is still brown but has small shoots in it

[AJB88]

Guys when is the best time to do some re-seeding to try and rescue the summer damage, now or next year? Back lawn has recovered quite well but the front hasn't.

I've got a few days off now so was going to do it now.

[Hayek]

AJB88 said:

Guys when is the best time to do some re-seeding to try and rescue the summer damage, now or next year? Back lawn has recovered quite well but the front hasn't.

I've got a few days off now so was going to do it now.

I've just done mine yesterday. I'm southish and in town which I think gives you several degrees over being in the countryside. If some doesn't germinate (unlikely I think) it'll get going in the spring.

[OtherBusiness]

Southern Hampshire here, scarified and overseeded on Monday. Should be fine I think as warm this week and will be needing the sprinkler too!

[Canute]

Quick question hopefully.

I have reseeded an area about 30SQM with grass seed on new soil after clearing this area from weed and junk. The seeds are germinating but I nottice that the quantity of seeds has reduced, I think we have had some birds grazing on them.

Could I add some more seed to thicken up the density a bit and this time scatter a fine layer of top dress to hide the seeds from the greedy birds? bearing in mind I now have seedlings, although sparse sprouting up!

I'm really keen to get a good amount of grass growing here to get me through to the spring when I will add more again.

[RichB]

OtherBusiness said:

Southern Hampshire here, scarified and overseeded on Monday. Should be fine I think as warm this week and will be needing the sprinkler too!

Northeast Hampshire here and likewise, I decided to rake and overseed my front lawns yesterday so as to see some growth in before the winter. I've got huge bare patches since the summer and with the weather over the last few weeks still dry I've been putting it off. Hopefully I've got the timing right with the ground still warm and rain predicted soon. Meanwhile I'm exercising the water meter a bit in order to get some water into the soil.

Top picture was June, the one below was taken a few weeks ago!

Edited by RichB on Wednesday 3rd October 14:58

[Muncher]

I've ordered a tonne of top dressing to do some levelling on my lawn, it was "new" last year and has settled to various extents. I had hoped to get it done 2 weeks ago, with a very light scarify, heavy spiking and possibly a bit of seed, but I've been delayed and no won't be able to do it until about the 20th October, which is a lot later than I'd have liked. The question is, if I leave the seed element out, is it still too late to do it this year? I'm thinking I may as well do it in the spring and combine with a bit of seed. The lawn is already very thick and growing well.

[mikeiow]

Muncher said:

I've ordered a tonne of top dressing to do some levelling on my lawn, it was "new" last year and has settled to various extents. I had hoped to get it done 2 weeks ago, with a very light scarify, heavy spiking and possibly a bit of seed, but I've been delayed and no won't be able to do it until about the 20th October, which is a lot later than I'd have liked. The question is, if I leave the seed element out, is it still too late to do it this year? I'm thinking I may as well do it in the spring and combine with a bit of seed. The lawn is already very thick and growing well.

Personally, I would leave it until spring, rather than late October.....but I'm no Percy Thrower!

[Muncher]

I've just cancelled the order. The rate of growth here has really slowed despite the mild temperatures, I will spike it, give it a light scarify and top dress it once things have warmed up.

[p4cks]

Finally moved into my new gaff and the front and rear lawns are looking fairly poor, have weeds throughout and slightly off colour. I'm looking forward to getting the turf in better nick.

Here's a comparison between before and after a treatment of Scotts Lawn Feed (neighbour's on the right) so certainly a step in the right direction:
Untitled by p4cks, on Flickr

The dark patches are where I removed some of the larger weeds, then patched with top soil and reseeded so I'm delighted that it's raining!