2018 Lawn thread

[Patrick Bateman]

That's a field! I'm a little under 50.

Watering can spray adapter makes short work of it but not sure I'd fancy doing it at 5 times the area.

[bazza white]

Its a nice size. Old 50s house when land wasnt so much of an issue. To big for a shovel if it needs scraping back though.

[Blackpuddin]

bazza white said:

Patrick Bateman said:

fking hell how big are your lawns?

400-500g per 100 square metres is the rate I've stuck with.

My watering can does almost exactly one pass over the entire lawn so it's 200-225g of iron sulphate and 20 litres of water.

How small is yours.

Ours is about 250sqm at the rear and a small amount at the front so a kilo is about right. I tried a watering can but it managed a strip, it pissed out.

Yes ha ha I found that 10 litres disappeared pretty quickly from my (standard) watering can. Haven't measured the lawns but I've just sent the missis out to pace them out and I reckon the three of them must amount to 700 sqm approx.

[Evanivitch]

Scarifier. Black and Decker. Gumtree. 30 quid.


OMG my lawn is now a mess!

[renmure]

I've taken back 450 square meters of my garden that, for the past 10 years or so, had been used by my neighbouring farmer as part of their field. It's really on the wrong side of my driveway and the wrong side of a substantial hedge from the rest of the garden and a bit separate from everything else so it made sense for both of us. The introduction of new satellite mapping of farm boundaries meant it was a good time to do something with it. 450sq meters is a decent chunk of ground but I've already got nearly 5 acres so didn't think I was missing anything. Hey ho.

I've planted a double row of hawthorn hedge which will end up matching the existing hedge and put in a double row of posts and rabbit fencing. I've gone for a low maintenance, slow growing mix of grass seed so hopefully I can forget about it for most of the year. Once the hedge is more established I guess it can end up as an enclosed "secret" garden with either a poly tunnel or BBQ hut or something.

[CharlesdeGaulle]

That looks great renmure. Why the double layer of fencing?

[robertredford]

Evanivitch said:

Scarifier. Black and Decker. Gumtree. 30 quid.


OMG my lawn is now a mess!

Don't panic!!

It should look like it's beyond redemption it will recover though.

Patience young grasshopper.....

I remember doing the whole scarify, hollow tine and top dress when we moved into our present house. My neighbour popped his head over the fence and thought I'd ploughed it!

Six weeks later, he couldn't believe his eyes..

28 years on, it's still going strong

[kryten22uk]

My lawn this morning! Took 4hrs to mow.

[renmure]

CharlesdeGaulle said:

That looks great renmure. Why the double layer of fencing?

No real reason, I was just copying what had been put in to match the original hedging. I think there was a 100% grant for the farmer to hedge all the field boundaries so maybe because it was "free money" they went OTT. If nothing else, it should make it fairly secure for keeping things out or in. I doubt even my Great Dane would fancy jumping a double fence and a double hawthorn hedge

[Evanivitch]

robertredford said:

Evanivitch said:

Scarifier. Black and Decker. Gumtree. 30 quid.


OMG my lawn is now a mess!

Don't panic!!

It should look like it's beyond redemption it will recover though.

Patience young grasshopper.....

I remember doing the whole scarify, hollow tine and top dress when we moved into our present house. My neighbour popped his head over the fence and thought I'd ploughed it!

Six weeks later, he couldn't believe his eyes..

28 years on, it's still going strong

Thank you for the assurance wise one.

I've got 4 years until I'm planning to have a little one playing on it, plenty of time to waste.

Front lawn is going to get some shady lawn seed because it struggles through winter with it's North facing. Lots of daisys causing issues too, going to try and deal with them without chemicals...

[robertredford]

independentLee said:

This....

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lawn-Expert-Dr-D-Hessayon...

End of discussion

My 'bible'. First bought for me by my Mam when I bought my first house which was a bare earthed new build and I started my first lawn from scratch.

I got the lawn bug from then (early 80's)

I've recommended this book to workmates so many times over the years I should be on commission

If you want to get a lovely lawn, as independantLee says, this book ends the discussion!

[robertredford]

Evanivitch said:

Thank you for the assurance wise one.

I've got 4 years until I'm planning to have a little one playing on it, plenty of time to waste.

No problem

Once upon a time that lawn of mine had four little ones over the years, complete with lawn destroying swings, slides, trampolines, paddling pools, swingball etc etc.

My wife told me that I'd have to give up on the garden as it was simply a kids play area until I got a lot older....

Hey ho, here I am

Good news is, my youngest lad (16) is keen as mustard in the garden, and loves to cut the grass with our 1950's Ransomes Ajax push mower.

Kids eventually come in useful

[Chicken Chaser]

Mine is dreadful. We've had biblical rain these last few weeks up North so its still like a sponge. Can't even walk on it. It usually drains fairly well so hopefully should be better for middle of the week if it stays dry enough. I need to cut, rake, reseed some areas which I turned at the edges (due to the loss of grass at the edge) and then feed.

[r44flyer]

Hello all,
Just before I started mowing this year I noticed this weed grass has popped up in a few patches about 8 inches across. I'm not 100% sure what it is, can anyone offer any advice? I'm leaning towards cutting it out entirely before it gets any worse and before I overseed next week. Not sure if I need to worry about tubers.

Many thanks

[TR4man]

kryten22uk said:

My lawn this morning! Took 4hrs to mow.

I trust that this is "before" and not "after"....

[robertredford]

r44flyer said:

Hello all,
Just before I started mowing this year I noticed this weed grass has popped up in a few patches about 8 inches across. I'm not 100% sure what it is, can anyone offer any advice? I'm leaning towards cutting it out entirely before it gets any worse and before I overseed next week. Not sure if I need to worry about tubers.

Many thanks

Plain old wicken grass, dig out and refill/reseed

[robertredford]

Chicken Chaser said:

Mine is dreadful. We've had biblical rain these last few weeks up North so its still like a sponge. Can't even walk on it. It usually drains fairly well so hopefully should be better for middle of the week if it stays dry enough. I need to cut, rake, reseed some areas which I turned at the edges (due to the loss of grass at the edge) and then feed.

More importantly, you need to aerate

A garden fork, pushed in to the hilt, is a start, but proper hollow tine aeration will be much better. You can hire, or buy, a hollow tine aerator

[g3org3y]

First cut of the year done yesterday. Bit crude. Lots and lots of moss.



Our puppy seems very keen to dig up and chew moss so very reluctant to put any moss killer down for fear of poisoning him. Will rake as much as possible.

Got some seed from last year designed for the shady areas, I'm assuming it'll be OK for the main (non shady) areas? Also ordered some fertiliser from the lawnsmith.

Edited by g3org3y on Sunday 15th April 09:14

[Welshbeef]

TR4man said:

kryten22uk said:

My lawn this morning! Took 4hrs to mow.

I trust that this is "before" and not "after"....

Yes where is the after?


Ours looked similar to pic - gave it two cuts marked difference even managed a BBQ on it 😁.


Then came the deluge of rain so my plans for more cuts today are thwarted.

[r44flyer]

robertredford said:

Plain old wicken grass, dig out and refill/reseed

Oh joy! Haha.

Thank you.