2021 Lawn thread
Discussion
Max5476 said:
Please recommend me a lawn seed for overseeding.
We live in a new build, built in 2017, and the lawn is looking very sparse & grows very slowly. Not sure what type it is, as we are the second owners.
The soils is mainly clay, the lawn is mostly sunny (in fact the patches of lawn most in need of over seeding are sunny all day, there are a couple of shaded patches though) and we have 2 toddlers - so it is well trodden
Thanks
Lawnsmith Classic gets a good rep. Not desperately expensive and a good blend. I've got A1 Lawn's Platinum with rye, which I like. We live in a new build, built in 2017, and the lawn is looking very sparse & grows very slowly. Not sure what type it is, as we are the second owners.
The soils is mainly clay, the lawn is mostly sunny (in fact the patches of lawn most in need of over seeding are sunny all day, there are a couple of shaded patches though) and we have 2 toddlers - so it is well trodden
Thanks
I have also recently used Germinal's A26 which is bred to stay green in drought conditions. It has a high ryegrass content which is good for wear and tear but will recover well and give a good appearance.
Recently moved into our newly built house, the garden had a nice patio, then 30m x 17m of "soil".
The local builder have heartedly levelled it off for me with about 8 inches of topsoil. Which left this::
Then myself and brother in law set about raking it a bit better, removing any large stones etc, seeding, and then light rake again, something like this:
Daft as I was at the time, thought it needed watering (week ago last Saturday!) So set to with sprinklers, although two on full power didn't do a right lot!
Then a just over a week ago, all hell broke loose, and it started to rain... Great I thought initially.....
However, as some of you will know, it has been torrential up in North Yorkshire, we have had regular visitors:
Safe to say, it got f
king wet.... I am nervous about how wet it got:
After an hour of the above, it looked like the below, still incredibly wet underneath:
I know it has only been a week and a bit, and not very warm up here, 10 degrees at most, this week seems warmer, but also still very wet.
So the big question, have I killed 20kg of grass seed? Or will it all come right, once it continues to warm up a bit?
I know it isn't perfectly level, and a bit clay like underneath, but I wont ever have a perfect lawn backing onto fields......
What are your professional opinions?
The local builder have heartedly levelled it off for me with about 8 inches of topsoil. Which left this::
Then myself and brother in law set about raking it a bit better, removing any large stones etc, seeding, and then light rake again, something like this:
Daft as I was at the time, thought it needed watering (week ago last Saturday!) So set to with sprinklers, although two on full power didn't do a right lot!
Then a just over a week ago, all hell broke loose, and it started to rain... Great I thought initially.....
However, as some of you will know, it has been torrential up in North Yorkshire, we have had regular visitors:
Safe to say, it got f
king wet.... I am nervous about how wet it got:After an hour of the above, it looked like the below, still incredibly wet underneath:
I know it has only been a week and a bit, and not very warm up here, 10 degrees at most, this week seems warmer, but also still very wet.
So the big question, have I killed 20kg of grass seed? Or will it all come right, once it continues to warm up a bit?
I know it isn't perfectly level, and a bit clay like underneath, but I wont ever have a perfect lawn backing onto fields......
What are your professional opinions?
Autopilot said:
richatnort said:
RAIN!!! Can't believe I'm so excited for a day of rain haha!
Same!! I never thought I’d get this excited about a steady downpour!! The soil is like dust at the moment ...In the new bit, the grass is growing 2inches a week at the moment from nothing in 6weeks.
Daniel
Condi said:
When people overseed a lawn, do they then leave it for 3 or 4 weeks to let the grass bed in, as you would with a new lawn, or just mow it weekly despite the risk of damaging the young seedlings.
I leave it longer, having cut good and short first (work the height down over a week or two) but then at 10-15 days, have topped of the grass to jusr above the new growth.I also used our old, almost totally shagged but with a sharp blade, wheeled rotary mower rather than the new Honda roller rotary.
As said, the old grass provides some cushion, and you have to do something to keep in not too long to avoid completing with the new seed too much.
Daniel
r44flyer said:
Max5476 said:
Please recommend me a lawn seed for overseeding.
We live in a new build, built in 2017, and the lawn is looking very sparse & grows very slowly. Not sure what type it is, as we are the second owners.
The soils is mainly clay, the lawn is mostly sunny (in fact the patches of lawn most in need of over seeding are sunny all day, there are a couple of shaded patches though) and we have 2 toddlers - so it is well trodden
Thanks
Lawnsmith Classic gets a good rep. Not desperately expensive and a good blend. I've got A1 Lawn's Platinum with rye, which I like. We live in a new build, built in 2017, and the lawn is looking very sparse & grows very slowly. Not sure what type it is, as we are the second owners.
The soils is mainly clay, the lawn is mostly sunny (in fact the patches of lawn most in need of over seeding are sunny all day, there are a couple of shaded patches though) and we have 2 toddlers - so it is well trodden
Thanks
I have also recently used Germinal's A26 which is bred to stay green in drought conditions. It has a high ryegrass content which is good for wear and tear but will recover well and give a good appearance.
Thier website has a filter to narrow down seed type for lawn condition.
joestifff said:
Recently moved into our newly built house, the garden had a nice patio, then 30m x 17m of "soil".
The local builder have heartedly levelled it off for me with about 8 inches of topsoil. Which left this::
Then myself and brother in law set about raking it a bit better, removing any large stones etc, seeding, and then light rake again, something like this:
Daft as I was at the time, thought it needed watering (week ago last Saturday!) So set to with sprinklers, although two on full power didn't do a right lot!
Then a just over a week ago, all hell broke loose, and it started to rain... Great I thought initially.....
However, as some of you will know, it has been torrential up in North Yorkshire, we have had regular visitors:
Safe to say, it got fking wet.... I am nervous about how wet it got:
After an hour of the above, it looked like the below, still incredibly wet underneath:
I know it has only been a week and a bit, and not very warm up here, 10 degrees at most, this week seems warmer, but also still very wet.
So the big question, have I killed 20kg of grass seed? Or will it all come right, once it continues to warm up a bit?
I know it isn't perfectly level, and a bit clay like underneath, but I wont ever have a perfect lawn backing onto fields......
What are your professional opinions?
I'm not a professional.... only two years into this game, learnt atleast half I know from the annual PH threads!The local builder have heartedly levelled it off for me with about 8 inches of topsoil. Which left this::
Then myself and brother in law set about raking it a bit better, removing any large stones etc, seeding, and then light rake again, something like this:
Daft as I was at the time, thought it needed watering (week ago last Saturday!) So set to with sprinklers, although two on full power didn't do a right lot!
Then a just over a week ago, all hell broke loose, and it started to rain... Great I thought initially.....
However, as some of you will know, it has been torrential up in North Yorkshire, we have had regular visitors:
Safe to say, it got f
king wet.... I am nervous about how wet it got:After an hour of the above, it looked like the below, still incredibly wet underneath:
I know it has only been a week and a bit, and not very warm up here, 10 degrees at most, this week seems warmer, but also still very wet.
So the big question, have I killed 20kg of grass seed? Or will it all come right, once it continues to warm up a bit?
I know it isn't perfectly level, and a bit clay like underneath, but I wont ever have a perfect lawn backing onto fields......
What are your professional opinions?
However, I expect it will be totally fine.
Worst case, you might have a few small patches where the seed has shifted, which you can just re sow if they are a little thin a week after its germinated.
You always get some patchiness anyway, and even without reseeding the patches will grown out in th first few months growth.
Daniel
joropug said:
Thought I'd contribute!
Disclaimer - First lawn I have owned, moved in late last year. Made lots of mistakes I'm sure.
The lawn looked green and luscious but on closer inspection it was 50% moss and really uneven. I bought a new petrol Mountfield with a roller and was hoping for those coveted stripes, but unfortunately as the lawn was so bumpy I had to have it on the highest setting to avoid it grounding out. It also meant lots of patches were quite long where they were in channels.
I don't have a before picture but stage 1 was scarify the hell out of it. I borrowed an electric scarifier which was great but took a lot of time. I went mental on it, so had an entire garden waste bin compressed to the max and about 10 black bags of moss/grass at the end of it.
I then bought 12 bags of top soil in an attempt to somewhat level the lawn - I wish I had bought even more and rented a roller in hindsight though. Once down, I applied 6 boxes of Home Bargain's finest £3.50 a box grass seed:
I also dug down a bit where some tree roots had pushed up the grass in an attempt to level it off a bit:
Here is how it looked a couple of days after seed and soil was down, I bought a sprinkler and have used it most days for a bit if dry. Mixed opinions online but my dad did his lawn at the same time, without the sprinkler and mine has grown faster.
April:
End of April:
Pretty pleased with the progress. The moss is pretty much gone now, but I have obtained a fair amount of weeds so that will be next on the list.
In terms of level, the lawnmower can now go to level 3 comfortably (5 - Max before) and I even tried it on level 2, grounded out in a few spots still but way better.
Suggestions for May onwards maintenance appreciated! Want to keep it growing healthily.
Sounds incredible. Good work. Disclaimer - First lawn I have owned, moved in late last year. Made lots of mistakes I'm sure.
The lawn looked green and luscious but on closer inspection it was 50% moss and really uneven. I bought a new petrol Mountfield with a roller and was hoping for those coveted stripes, but unfortunately as the lawn was so bumpy I had to have it on the highest setting to avoid it grounding out. It also meant lots of patches were quite long where they were in channels.
I don't have a before picture but stage 1 was scarify the hell out of it. I borrowed an electric scarifier which was great but took a lot of time. I went mental on it, so had an entire garden waste bin compressed to the max and about 10 black bags of moss/grass at the end of it.
I then bought 12 bags of top soil in an attempt to somewhat level the lawn - I wish I had bought even more and rented a roller in hindsight though. Once down, I applied 6 boxes of Home Bargain's finest £3.50 a box grass seed:
I also dug down a bit where some tree roots had pushed up the grass in an attempt to level it off a bit:
Here is how it looked a couple of days after seed and soil was down, I bought a sprinkler and have used it most days for a bit if dry. Mixed opinions online but my dad did his lawn at the same time, without the sprinkler and mine has grown faster.
April:
End of April:
Pretty pleased with the progress. The moss is pretty much gone now, but I have obtained a fair amount of weeds so that will be next on the list.
In terms of level, the lawnmower can now go to level 3 comfortably (5 - Max before) and I even tried it on level 2, grounded out in a few spots still but way better.
Suggestions for May onwards maintenance appreciated! Want to keep it growing healthily.
My thoughts and or feedback are as below. Disclaimer, I'm two years ahead of you on starting learning, and laid (seed) a new section last year, but am only done most of this for the first time a fortnight ago myself!
-Heavy scarification, top dress, overseed is afaik, exactly the right call as well as exactly what I'm doing. Start drastic early on, and then it should just be keeping on top of it and or tweeking the odd patch from them on.
I now have a knackered petrol scarifier (would make much more sense to hire, but lockdown eBay purchase) but also a Bosch ALR electric spring-tine lawn rake which is great for a lighter cut, and 'hoovering up' pine needles and what's left after manually raking up after the scarifier.
-Most roller mowers appear to have much shorter settings then their wheel mounted counterparts, so using max or atleast one of the higher settings is common for a normal/family lawn, I know I do. Far too many people mainly cut far too short most of the time.
-You can basically never buy too much soil when too dressing, see (recent ish) earlier posts on application rate, but given 1m cube is 1000 litre, you need 10 litre per m^2 to get down 10mm average coverage!
-How did you level in the soil? For small hollows a 'lute' or else just a 3ft landscaping rake is fine. I've just bought a 38" 48P Polypropylene job, £40 Inc next day delivery from BMS.
However it it's got bigger undulations, get on your knees with a 10ft length of straight 3x2 (pick a good one, having looked down the length of a few) and drag it backwards and forwards at 0, 180, 90, 270 deg directions, scooping the high bits into the low bits, till your well and truly bored of that game. Firm deeper filling with your feet. Repeat the following day. Atleast, thats been working for me.
-As said, you can always add more top dressing, at any time of year your getting any grass growth at all, and as said, basically as much as you can afford and or get hold of at time given time!
-Make sure you get some lawnsand and or soluble iron on it for the moss if you haven't already. Probably ok to add now still (?) but certainly in autumn. Kills the moss, but also strengthens and greens to the grass. Apply after scarification not before, unless raking by hand.
-Moss has no roots at all and just sits on the surface. Obvious when you think about it, given it happily growns on rocks/roofs/patios but took someone telling me explicitly to actually twig onto that! But it's why it takes off/out so well.
-I really wouldn't worry about broadleaf leaves, given it till Sept-Oct for it to establish, then hit it with Weedol (Verdone) or Resolva. Either one blanket pass to get upto to speed, then spot treatment, or just heavy spot treatment.
-Get a push lawn aeratior and do half the lawn every time it rains heavily and you can be bothered.
Too late now with the seed I think, and should be going into dryer weather soon, but definatly consider hollow tining in autumn from what all the guides say.
-Read this thread, the LawnSmith's guides and videos, maybe follow Premier Lawns on youtube.
Enjoy (stop before not fun anymore)
Cheers
Daniel
Stedman said:
Chitting seems to have gone well 'so far'...
Mixed it with a load of top soil and chucked it down under some netting. Birds haven't been interested yet, quite pleased. We'll see!
I have just started chitting lawn seed after reading the Pitchcare article posted on here. I managed to kill a patch of grass with paint thinner so fingers crossed this will be a quick fix! Mixed it with a load of top soil and chucked it down under some netting. Birds haven't been interested yet, quite pleased. We'll see!
forrestgrump said:
Anyone have any recommendations for trimming edging? Currently using an electric strimmer and while it’s only a cheap one it’s so bloody violent. It’s mostly facing a sleeper border so can’t get a blade in below soil level if that makes sense.
I got one of these as I wanted something cordless and it had great reviews. I have sleepers also and it does a very good job as you can twist the head. It doesn't take chunks out of the wood and the battery life is great. Would definitely recommend it. https://www.argos.co.uk/product/5987386?istCompany...
la-887037255003%7ccrid:94168542777%7cnw:g%7crnd:994169709301352567%7cdvc:c%7cadp:%7cmt:%7cloc:9045062&utm_source=Google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=599609992&utm_term=&utm_content=shopping&utm_custom1=24126986217&utm_custom2=289-152-2757&gclid=CjwKCAjw-e2EBhAhEiwAJI5jg6LT1qVf3qPptKxNvXa-LyingV1cVOy17zn8Fr5OucSbOZB7sI4lexoCcBMQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.dsI put grass seed down on Bank Holiday Monday and I have grass shoots appearing!! I'm genuinely fascinated by how fast its popped up but I guess the conditions have been pretty good (South East UK), warmish days / soil, rain at night and repeat! I'm looking forwards to the end of the next week as obviously it's VERY patchy so worrying that it will be grassy in places and nothing in others but trying not to be impatient and let it do its thing as it will grow!!
The thing that surprised me was how suddenly it appeared! I've had a new fence put in on one side so was out there yesterday morning providing the guys with Tea, but wasn't until the afternoon that the chap who cleared the area for me commented how he could see the grass coming up....and then I looked and there were green patches....how the hell did I miss that when I was out there earlier the same day!
The thing that surprised me was how suddenly it appeared! I've had a new fence put in on one side so was out there yesterday morning providing the guys with Tea, but wasn't until the afternoon that the chap who cleared the area for me commented how he could see the grass coming up....and then I looked and there were green patches....how the hell did I miss that when I was out there earlier the same day!
forrestgrump said:
Anyone have any recommendations for trimming edging? Currently using an electric strimmer and while it’s only a cheap one it’s so bloody violent. It’s mostly facing a sleeper border so can’t get a blade in below soil level if that makes sense.
Have you been on YouTube there's a few good videos about edging a lawn.joestifff said:
We had problems with flooding in the back garden in our last house.Eventually we found out that the piping to the rain water soakaway under the lawn hadn't been connected up. It's not likely in your case because the water is sitting in a number of different locations, but it's something worth thinking over.
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