2020 Lawn thread

[Arranguez]

Lawnsmith Winter treatment or a does of Ferrous Sulphate will kill your moss without promoting winter growth of the grass. I applied a winter treatment last weekend and the little moss I have turned black.

[cheddar]

Hasn't rained for over two months here (NZ), lawn's a tiny bit dry:

[jason61c]

Got my new(to me!) mower today.

Seems as its 20hp and 4wd, I gave it a good test(play).

[Craikeybaby]

I’ve noticed that my lawn is looking like it is ready for a cut - hopefully it will be dry enough tomorrow.

It appears that the weed control I’ve done over the last few years has worked, other than a tiny bit of moss it seems to be mostly grass and worm casts.

The main problem is that under the grass it is lumpy, probably related to all the worm casts. I have sifted topsoil or compost on as top dressing whenever I have over seeded, but not managed to level it out. Any suggestions for a smoother lawn?

Edited by Craikeybaby on Sunday 16th February 23:08

[WinstonWolf]

A decent roller mower and if it's still uneven top dress and repeat.

[Craikeybaby]

No roller on my mower - probably the reason for the unevenness.

I went to mow the lawn on Friday, before the storm arrived, but no petrol in either the mower nor the petrol can. I wasn't sure wether to be be impressed at myself for finishing 2019 without any left over petrol, or annoyed at myself for not buying more. Now I'll have to wait until the lawn is drier anyway.

[Nick_MSM]

Cut my lawns three times this year, still growing fairly quickly! Far too wet to give it another cut now. Pretty happy with how they have held up over winter. Little bit of over seeding required in places in the spring.

[Mark975]

kriggi said:

Not sure what's wrong with our lawn but think it might be leatherjackets as we had quite a few daddy longlegs last summer. Its become quite patchy and thin in places, lots of worm casts which I guess is a good thing.

Any ideas on what it might be and how to treat it. We're thinking nematodes but think we've missed the treatment period!

Thanks to Storm Dennis which has flooded the lawn causing all these to appear, hundreds of them. Think I have a leatherjacket infestation. So now need to decide whether to treat with nematodes in April or have the whole lot dig out and re-laid.

[tim0409]

PositronicRay said:

Your dog will ruin it.

Embrace the crap lawn, like a badge of honour.

P. S. I like moss.

Whilst we love our dog, we have decided to put our house on the market and I really want to improve the lawn if possible! He is now 4.5 months and very trainable so I'm going to attempt to make him wee in one area to contain the damage. It's still cold here in East Lothian so my plan is to scarify as soon as the lawn starts growing, over-seed (especially the yellow patches) and see what happens. For some reason we have always needed to scarify every year as the grass gets really yellow/thatched in the winter and doesn't really come back that well in the Spring. I take it there is no point Scarifying/seeding until the weather warms up?

Here is what it should look like....

[the cueball]

Minus 3 and frosty here today... lawn looks like s***te..

[RichB]

tim0409 said:

...I take it there is no point Scarifying/seeding until the weather warms up?

Exactly, wait until the grass is growing.

[Johnnytheboy]

Mine's growing! But can I cut it? Fat chance (clay)!

[RichB]

Gave my grass its first cut of the year this morning and I am pretty pleased with it. There's a few areas that will need seeding in the shady areas and I've got an area under a beautiful Japanese maple that I accept will never be good but by and large I'm very pleased with how it's overwintered.







Unfortunately Mr Mole has taken up residence and left me with this to sort out. Apparently activity is greater in the winter and they are apparently solitary creatures (I mean who would want to live in a hole?) so I am hoping he will eventually move on. I don't want to do away with him in but if he persists it will be

[OtherBusiness]

Looks lovely RichB

[DonkeyApple]

Yup. I also put in a cut this morning. Scarifying and treatment is pencilled in for next week.

[RichB]

OtherBusiness said:

Looks lovely RichB

Thanks, I might leave this on the grass as a subtle hint!

[MrOrange]

DonkeyApple said:

Yup. I also put in a cut this morning. Scarifying and treatment is pencilled in for next week.

I cut mine a couple of days ago and I'm thinking the same - but snow on the ground and sub-7 degrees is making me think I should wait.

ps: due to this thread my lawn is actually looking pretty reasonable - no moss this year (yay!) plus it's looking rather green. Gotta love good the PH-collective advice

[DonkeyApple]

It’s a very good thread so long as you protect against the risk of it turning you into one of those obsessive nutters!!

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

DonkeyApple said:

Scarifying and treatment is pencilled in for next week.

It’s w-a-a-a-y too early to scarify yet, even in the south.

Just because you’ve had to cut your lawn doesn’t mean you’re properly into the growing season. We can easily get a cold snap that’ll put the brakes on.

Wait until the grass is growing vigorously and consistently, and there’s no risk of a cold snap. And even then, in spring you only want to do a light scarification.

I also plan to scarify lightly and overseed, but I’m not considering it until the beginning of April at the earliest.

For the moment, all I would do is apply some ferrous sulphate, and maybe a dose of autumn lawn feed (because it’s low in nitrogen and won’t cause your grass to get too lush when the risk of frost is still present). It’s still too early to apply a spring/summer feed.

[DonkeyApple]

I had a dose of Ferous Sulphate put down in Dec just to inhibit the growth of moss which had become abundant. It’s a tough and rough set of lawns so it’s just a matter of giving it a bit of a scrub rather than a polish. I’ve a load of flower beds to be dug in April to make the shapes of the lawns quicker and simpler to whip over with a mower. That’s also when overseeing is planned.