2021 Lawn thread

[carreauchompeur]

Badly need to dig down and create drainage by sleepers as bottom half is a bit boggy.

My mum is adamant I should have artificial grass, but I think it’ll look gash and won’t work with the slope, thoughts?

[MarkGArgyle]

Not sure if this is the place or not but just bought this. Need a mower that can work on the flat lawn around the septic tank but also on the no so level sections as you can see. Torn between petrol and li-ion. Needs to be able to pick up and mulch leaves also as we have a lot of trees overhanging the garden. Any ideas?

[Pookie123]

Pookie123 said:

I’ve been offered this scarifier for £50, tempted to buy it to give my lawn a go end of March beginning of April time. Just wondering if it’s worth the £50?

The one above or this one for £10 more?

https://www.screwfix.com/p/wr6002-1500-32cm-raker-...

[richatnort]

Any tips on what to do with a space that is entirely moss? I've got the Lidl Scarifier some years ago and some iron sulphate ready for the end of the month when it's a bit warmer to get on with it but do people think I should be OK getting as much up as possible with the scarifier & then laying seed down on it?

[Rooster2212]

After living only in apartments or houses with a tiny yard and not even managing to keep basic house plants alive, we bought our first house with a garden as we now have a baby. Safe to say I am out of my depth...





Our plans ...

Edited by Rooster2212 on Saturday 6th March 19:40

[rufusgti]

Wow. That's a brilliant Garden. Love your plans also the best gardens have lots of different areas to spend time in. I can't really zoom into the sizes. What's the total length of garden?

[Slackline]

I've just had the ride on back from a service ready to go. Nearly had a heart attack at the bill - £480 and that's with blades sharpened and not replaced. Think I'll be using a different dealer next time..

There's some Iron Sulphate on the way too. Hopefully that will kill off a bit of the moss that's grown and get it back looking decent again.

[dhutch]

Humpy D said:

Well, I have bitten the bullet and next Tuesday a nice man with a chain saw is coming round to fell the plum and apple trees and take about a third off the silver birch. This will increase the amount of light coming in to the garden and will hopefully mean better grass growth. Plus it'll save me the job of clearing and disposing of maggoty plums and apples in the Summer and leaves in the Autumn which, as we know, can hinder grass growth too.

I'm not happy about chopping down healthy trees (and neither will the birds be either) but as my 'office' looks directly onto the garden I can't stand looking at my dreadful grass much longer. Of course, with all this work taking place, the lawn will no doubt resemble the Somme after they have trampled all over it so I will have that to deal with too.

Oh the fun of having a lawn!!!

Have you thought about pruning the trees instead? Fruit trees should be pruned to be fairly open in the middle, and should let enough light through to sustain grass underneath. Obviously they then loose their leaves in autumn, which once raked up should allow the grass good winter light.

We have just planted an apple, damson, and about four other trees but sadly it will be a few years till they produce good fruit and even longer till they are mature.

Daniel

[dhutch]

T5GRF said:

Ntv said:

Has anyone here successfully levelled out a bumpy lawn?

This isn't a retaining wall for levelling a large area type job. More a lawn that has too many dips and undulations in it for various reasons over the years (including concrete paving, now taken up).

Based on what I've read... my plan is:

- mixture of topsoil and sharp sand (probably 9/10s or so the former)
- spread over the uneven areas with manual rake/leveller type device
- sow seed
- compact manually
- sow more seed
- top dress with top soil to cover seed

Does that sound ok.

Unfortunately it will take a lot of soil. Looking at how far I can get with 5000 litres of soil and sand.

Thanks for the reply.
We had similar issues with our lawn when we moved in 20 years ago. I cut the lawn as short as I dare and then bought several tons of top dressing . lI used a large plank as a level and worked from one end of the garden using the plank to move soil into the depressions to try and create a level. I overseeded the whole lot then compacted it and stayed off it for several weeks. The results were pretty good and certainly an improvement worth a long day on my hands and knees!

Sounds about right, I'm no expert but unless you have drainage issues I would be using mainly topsoil rather than sand. I would just cut and normal height, unless it realy bad grasses you want to suppress and replace.

As said, you then want something with a bit of length, say 10ft of 3x2 straight timber with square corners, and use the to find the hollows and the drag it around on your hands and knees, one way, then at 90deg, repeat.

If it's a large lawn, two peices of timber, in a small frame a bit like a ladder, with a bit of added weight, and then drag it with a rope.

For deep area, tread it down (just walking over it feet close together, not stamping hard) and then reapply till level. Basically the same process as leveling bare earth for a lawn.

Water the night before if dry, then apply seed, rake in lightly, tread in to get good seed/soil contact. Cover with polythene till it germinates.

Now is about the ideal time, because it will take a weekend or two, by which time it's the perfect time to seed.

I've done bits on my parents lawn, and laid a few new areas including at our own home, but am getting setup myself to do exactly this to the existing part of our lawn and hopefully blend it in with the new section.

Fortunately we have the soil, so I've bought an electric rotary drive which should arrive any time now.

I'll let you know how it all goes.

Daniel

[Rooster2212]

rufusgti said:

Wow. That's a brilliant Garden. Love your plans also the best gardens have lots of different areas to spend time in. I can't really zoom into the sizes. What's the total length of garden?

It used to be, the old lady who lived here had it immaculate and very beautiful apparently. Sadly got neglected and then we bought it and we feel it’s got great potential. As you said, many different separate areas that should make good use of the length rather than one long lawn which would draw the eye to how narrow it is. It’s 37m long from the start of the grass x 5m wide.
First section is a BBQ area.

Then a sit down, sports watching fire pit area.



Next section will be nice planted area (far distant future idea of a hot tub - not my idea), that’s the end of the ‘adult area’ the next half is babies... a 9m section of lawn.


Then a dirty, muddy mulch play area, followed by sand pits and Wendy house.



Any critiques are welcome haha

[carreauchompeur]

TV in the garden: council

Only joking as I’m thoroughly envious of the space. I’d love a bit more in mine to accommodate a hot tub!

[smn159]

WTF is an insect hotel??

Hmmm... do I need one of these?

[Rooster2212]

carreauchompeur said:

TV in the garden: council

Only joking as I’m thoroughly envious of the space. I’d love a bit more in mine to accommodate a hot tub!

HA my only contribution to the space we may have moved to a bit more of a middle class area but born and raised in 'shameless-esk' estates!

Hot tub is no less council either these days haha - I am convinced its a gimmick, excellent at the end of a day skiing but I cant see myself using it at home.

[Rooster2212]

smn159 said:

WTF is an insect hotel??

Hmmm... do I need one of these?

Haha have a google. A way to bring more insects, thus birds and hopefully hedgehogs to the garden... plus all kids like playing with insects right!!

[eps]

Determined to get on top of our weed problem this year - although the neighbouring fallow farm field doesn't really help with this matter.

2nd cut yesterday - went for my 'normal' height, after cutting it a little 'high' on the previous weekend. I've not collected most of the clippings and let them mulch back in at the moment.

We've had a plan for our garden for a few years now - I made a start on it, but now need a couple of planting areas and borders, etc.. Last year the ground conditions here seemed to go from boggy to arid and not much in between. But need to get on with it now. Just looking to inject some colour and shape into our space.

Lawn wise I think there's a bit of moss creeping in - just need to treat that with some ferrous sulphate but nothing too major and it is probably due to all the rain we've been having and our soil is all clay so it's been holding on to whatever water there is as well...

[AyBee]

Time for me to get involved:

This was the sorry state of my garden (bought in December) after heavy rainfall a couple of months ago...pretty soggy (it drains after a couple of hours)! I think this is probably the result of a LOT of rain, the patio, a slightly sloping garden and clay. The "grass" is also predominantly moss which I'd like to get rid of. Is the drainage issue just a case of helping the rest of the clay to drain better (hollow tining?) or a bigger issue? Thoughts on approach and timings of treatments very much welcomed please.

Edited by AyBee on Monday 8th March 14:05

[Leftfootwonder]

Rooster2212 said:

smn159 said:

WTF is an insect hotel??

Hmmm... do I need one of these?

Haha have a google. A way to bring more insects, thus birds and hopefully hedgehogs to the garden... plus all kids like playing with insects right!!

Although you'll also attract the flying vermin which are currently blitzing my newly painted fence!

[eps]

AyBee said:

Time for me to get involved:

This was the sorry state of my garden (bought in December) after heavy rainfall a couple of months ago...pretty soggy (it drains after a couple of hours)! I think this is probably the result of a LOT of rain, the patio, a slightly sloping garden and clay. The "grass" is also predominantly moss which I'd like to get rid of. Is the drainage issue just a case of helping the rest of the clay to drain better (hollow tining?) or a bigger issue? Thoughts on approach and timings of treatments very much welcomed please.

Edited by AyBee on Monday 8th March 14:05

We have a similar problem, but I don't think it's going to go away for us. We've got clay, I even dug down around 1.5m and just kept on digging out more clay, plus the farm fields behind us slope towards us so we get the rain that it can't hold.. I have put in a couple of soakaways and some drainage channels which I thought had helped but the recent rain and the rain at the beginning of last year was still quite bad. I can only suggest popping a soakaway in to try and soak up the rainwater - in theory and hopefully practice it should hold the water there for a bit and so provide some extra water for a short amount of time for all the plants. We've put in a lot of hedging and some trees, which I was hoping would help as well, as they should take moisture out of the soil, but of course they can only do it at a relatively slow rate. I think I need another couple of soakaways, but am going to put in some more shrubs, etc.. and a couple of sizeable (for us) beds which again should soak up the water a bit. For us it's a bit of a losing battle as there is just a sheer amount of water to try and soak up - it will just keep coming off the farm fields behind us.

[Stedman]

Lawnsmith Winter Green applied today (finally!)

Lets see how we get on with it, I'm excited to see.

Will I see results within 2 weeks?

[-BFG-]

I seeded grass last year, grass took nicely however I have noticed it isn’t as green as I’d like due to what I’m assuming is the shade so I ordered some shady grass seed which has arrived today.

My plan is to cut the grass this week/end pending it stays dry and then go over the lawn with spikes/rake poking holes and then spread the new seed and leave for two weeks.

Any opinions ??



Unseeded