2020 Lawn thread

[tim0409]

I thought I would get in early (again) with a 2020 lawn thread to follow on from 2019....

Last year (2019) I scarified nice and early in the season and it came back really well so might skip scarifying this year. I recently got a Vizsla puppy who has successfully been housetrained, but if he is anything like my friend’s dog whom we look after, he will destroy the grass! I take it he is okay at the moment as the grass isn’t growing, or will I be left with a series of dead patches come spring?

All the best for 2020!

[PositronicRay]

Your dog will ruin it.

Embrace the crap lawn, like a badge of honour.

P. S. I like moss.

[505diff]

Every year since 2012 I’ve arsed about with my lawns and they have looked ok, this year it will be aerate, fertilise, weed and cut (not in that order) and I will spend less time fiddling on with it.
Two other lawns (mums and our rental house) had some seed thrown at them last September in a five minute job, and look at lot better than my lawn that had a lot more time thrown at it.

Just like cleaning the cars, now I just can’t be bothered where in the past would happily spend all day buggering about

[8-P]

Didn’t scarify last year, man it shows and my lawn is south facing.

[RichB]

I intend to give my lawns a winter feed including some ferrous sulphate in the next few days.

[renmure]

I drove over mine yesterday with the blades of the mulching deck up nice and high. It was more really to shred the leaves than cut the grass but at a pleasant 9 degrees and nil wind it was a bit unseasonably nice.

[Jader1973]

Summer here, my "lawn" is struggling



The green bits are weeds...

[dhutch]

Happy New Year lawn people!

tim0409 said:

I thought I would get in early (again) with a 2020 lawn thread to follow on from 2019....

Last year (2019) I scarified nice and early in the season and it came back really well so might skip scarifying this year.

I recently got a Vizsla puppy......if he is anything like my friend’s dog....he will destroy the grass!

How big is the garden? We have a collie-greyhound lurcher boy and while we get urine patches and the odd over 'scarification' its not too bad. If you really care, you can put the time and effort into training him to pee in a certain area away from the lawn.

Edited by dhutch on Thursday 2nd January 16:26

[Nick_MSM]

Can anyone recommend a good winter feed please? I over seeded back in September I think, a little thin in places I think due to the amount of rain we've had and some of the seed not taking.

[the cueball]

Having recently moved house, I now have a bigger garden/bit of grass so I’m trying to embrace the green!

Already picked up a scarifier for spring and I’m collecting a used Billy Goat tomorrow!

[WinstonWolf]

Mine is definitely undergoing 'winter maintenance'!

Got a few bags of leaves from the neighbour mulching down, the old lawn was completely compacted, nothing alive under the surface whatsoever. I've already got loads of lovely worms in there now and you can smell the old grass rotting where I dug it in

I've been hampered by all the rain, what's the betting it's a drought when I'm ready to sew the seed.

Edited by WinstonWolf on Thursday 2nd January 13:44

[dhutch]

Nick_MSM said:

Can anyone recommend a good winter feed please? I over seeded back in September I think, a little thin in places I think due to the amount of rain we've had and some of the seed not taking.

https://www.lawnsmith.co.uk/buying-guides/lawn-fertiliser-products-buying-guide

Go to the shop, filter by type down the left. If in doubt, really friendly over the phone. Mention 'pistonhead' as every little helps.


Daniel

[gotomuzzi]

My south lawn which is south facing is almost entirely Moss. There are a lot of fungi growing in and around it so I think the soil might be quite acidic. I’m Going to order a sample kit and get some ph readings but is there a type of grass seed that would grow in this kind of soil?

[PositronicRay]

gotomuzzi said:

My south lawn which is south facing is almost entirely Moss. There are a lot of fungi growing in and around it so I think the soil might be quite acidic. I’m Going to order a sample kit and get some ph readings but is there a type of grass seed that would grow in this kind of soil?

Work with nature, not against it. Embrace the moss.


(random photo of moss garden)

[Dr Murdoch]

Someone mentioned/recommended a hardy but shade tolerant grass seed. It maybe a slightly yellower green? It certainly wasn't cheap.

I tried and failed with shady and hardy grass seed this year, so it looks like I might have to dig a little deeper and spend a bit more. The 'pitch' is now 80% mud.

[jagnet]

Dr Murdoch said:

Someone mentioned/recommended a hardy but shade tolerant grass seed. It maybe a slightly yellower green? It certainly wasn't cheap.

Poa Supina which can be found in Germinal's A6 Supreme Shade mix.

[paulrockliffe]

renmure said:

I drove over mine yesterday with the blades of the mulching deck up nice and high. It was more really to shred the leaves than cut the grass but at a pleasant 9 degrees and nil wind it was a bit unseasonably nice.

I bought a mulching mower last year and didn't pick up a blade all year. The lawn was much better last year, which was a surprise as I was busy with another project so didn't do anything other than cut it. I sued half the usual fertiliser too.

I've since mulched in all the leaves, so hopefully the worms will like that too and reward me with a nice easy lawn again this year. Behind our fence is piled up with leaves and they keep blowing into my wood stack, so I'm tempted to extract them and mulch those into the lawn too.

Really can't recommend mulching highly enough!

[dhutch]

paulrockliffe said:

I bought a mulching mower last year and didn't pick up a blade all year. The lawn was much better last year, which was a surprise as I was busy with another project so didn't do anything other than cut it. I sued half the usual fertiliser too.

I've since mulched in all the leaves, so hopefully the worms will like that too and reward me with a nice easy lawn again this year. Behind our fence is piled up with leaves and they keep blowing into my wood stack, so I'm tempted to extract them and mulch those into the lawn too.

Really can't recommend mulching highly enough!

Fair, cant argue with that. I thought picking up the clippings was better and you could get issues with thatch etc without?

Certainly mulching in some of the leaves makes a lot of sense. We have a huge number of trees and I did two green wheelie bins full one evening in december just to get the foot deep drifts off. Enough has now returned, if not in the same volume, a mulch might be a good call.

Will get sortd with a compost heap at some point over this summer.

[paulrockliffe]

dhutch said:

paulrockliffe said:

I bought a mulching mower last year and didn't pick up a blade all year. The lawn was much better last year, which was a surprise as I was busy with another project so didn't do anything other than cut it. I sued half the usual fertiliser too.

I've since mulched in all the leaves, so hopefully the worms will like that too and reward me with a nice easy lawn again this year. Behind our fence is piled up with leaves and they keep blowing into my wood stack, so I'm tempted to extract them and mulch those into the lawn too.

Really can't recommend mulching highly enough!

Fair, cant argue with that. I thought picking up the clippings was better and you could get issues with thatch etc without?

Certainly mulching in some of the leaves makes a lot of sense. We have a huge number of trees and I did two green wheelie bins full one evening in december just to get the foot deep drifts off. Enough has now returned, if not in the same volume, a mulch might be a good call.

Will get sortd with a compost heap at some point over this summer.

I don't know about the thatch, I'll keep an eye on it and see what happens as it's only been mulched for one season, it's probably two years since I last scarified though. Certainly didn't notice any issues this year anyway. I usually have to treat for red-thread in the autumn, that wasn't a problem at all this year, which suggests good things were happening overall.

Wonder if the thatch will rot down anyway if it's buried in rotting clippings and leaves?

I was surprised how much leaf mulch washed in with the rain, I must have done 4" in places and yo can't see any sign now. IUt's really only time stopping me going and getting a load more for the rest of the lawn.

[renmure]

I'm out in the countryside with 5 acres of grass, surrounded by trees and haven't collected clippings in 20 years. Over that period I've mainly used a big ride-on mower with a proper mulching deck but also a triple cylinder ransoms mower that cut the grass so short that you never saw the clippings. I've ridden over the leaves every year to mulch them. I guess there will be some build-up of thatch over 20 years but I genuinely can't see any evidence