2021 Lawn thread

[Milkbuttons]

dhutch said:

Looks like plantain, hamsters love it, either of the two Lawn weed killers will treat it.

Thanks Daniel

[ChocolateFrog]

RichB said:

Stedman said:

RichB said:

morfmedia said:

POA has gone wild in my lawn...

Poa; it's poa annua, it's a type of grass. Names of plants are not capitalised and it's not an abbreviation for price on application.

Yep, mine has gone nuts too. Frustrating

Yep, I've got lots this year, it blows in on the wind and with birds... I suppose on the basis that it's an annual meadow grass it dies off each winter. I hope there's less next year.

Me too.

My normal mowing height doesn't get the seed heads, it is annoying.

[kentlad]

What do you guys use to keep a nice clean edge to your lawn? Ideally I’d like a one time install job that involves no cement / mortar so that rules out blocks as the garden is roughly 45 metres in length & I’ll be doing it on my own.

[RichB]

kentlad said:

What do you guys use to keep a nice clean edge to your lawn?

EverEdge Classic in Corten

[ChocolateFrog]

I had a good moan earlier in the season about my lawn but it's finally looking decent.

Just a few dog urine burns still to fill in.

[505diff]

ChocolateFrog said:

RichB said:

Stedman said:

RichB said:

morfmedia said:

POA has gone wild in my lawn...

Poa; it's poa annua, it's a type of grass. Names of plants are not capitalised and it's not an abbreviation for price on application.

Yep, mine has gone nuts too. Frustrating

Yep, I've got lots this year, it blows in on the wind and with birds... I suppose on the basis that it's an annual meadow grass it dies off each winter. I hope there's less next year.

Me too.

My normal mowing height doesn't get the seed heads, it is annoying.

If you have a scarifier or electric rake you can run that over a couple of times a month to lift the side shoots up before mowing, make sure the blade is set high enough not to hit the soil though as that’s the last thing you want to do in summer, the lawn will like it the poa will not.

[-BFG-]

The netting seems to be doing the trick and I have a few areas that are showing signs of greenery… thin shoots but a definite improvement.

I have been watering twice a day with the hose, light shower in the morning then later on in the afternoon/evening.

Now do I leave the netting in for a few weeks and keep watering or do I cut the grass short to encourage growth?

Do I add any lawn growth and re seed or just leave it ?

[DonkeyApple]

Due to the wet weather for much of the mowing season I've yet to cut the lawn as short as I would normally do just because one run will fill the mower and just make it a near two day job. Anyway, one the most recent cut I managed to do it with the mower dropped down one more step and what was revealed in one area was a large amount of dead grass from the big drying out last summer.

Anyway, what I decided to do was cut that particular section right down so I carried out repeated passes on successively lower settings until it was completely scalped and most of the dead grass was gone leaving green stubble showing through. I've overseeded this and given it a water.

It got me thinking about whether scalping sections of the lawn through the summer, so long as it's not allowed to get too dry and distressed, would be a useful way of clearing out thatch and finding the patches that need reseeding?

[snowandrocks]

DonkeyApple said:

It got me thinking about whether scalping sections of the lawn through the summer, so long as it's not allowed to get too dry and distressed, would be a useful way of clearing out thatch and finding the patches that need reseeding?

Scalping your lawn through the summer sounds like a recipe for creating dead patches that need reseeding!

I would stick to scarifying in early autumn.

[DonkeyApple]

snowandrocks said:

Scalping your lawn through the summer sounds like a recipe for creating dead patches that need reseeding!

I would stick to scarifying in early autumn.

I'd agree but it's so cold and wet at present I'm not sure there is so much risk. Scarifying takes about a week to do properly if doing it myself and you end up also breaking for the weather. Whereas yesterday's experiment took ten mins to successively cut the section of lawn down from the penultimate highest setting on the mower to the lowest to remove nearly all the thatch from last year's die off and reveal green grass.

It's just quite tempting, if the grass comes back well to wait through the summer for impending wet weeks and do the same on the other areas of this lawn.

Further up the lawn, which is pretty much weed free now, there remains patches of speedwell which seem resilient to historic treatments that could do with treating, clearing and over seeding. 'Lawn Shaving' would save an awful lot of time.

[dhutch]

I guess there is always space for what you find best.

However here, yesterday and today aside, it's been hot and dry. Today it's warm and humid with light drizzle.

Even on the lowest setting neather of my rotaries will get anywhere near touching the thatch. For that you need a raking/scarificating action and or top dressing to cover and rot it.


Daniel

[DonkeyApple]

Yup, it's an experiment at the end of the day. I generally keep the grass quite long on this lawn but I suspect that giving it a close cut and a rake will take out a lot of debris and then with a spot of over seeding it will come back well in these damp conditions. I shall report back in a few weeks either from the Sahara or the savanna.

[MrChips]

I’m quite happy now with how mines coming along in the nicer weather. Still got some poa in patches and I’ll be doing a second round of overseeding next week I think.

[CO2000]

MrChips said:

I’m quite happy now with how mines coming along in the nicer weather. Still got some poa in patches and I’ll be doing a second round of overseeding next week I think.

Looks really good, mine resembles the closing scenes of Caddyshack as I have been waging war against long established Moss!

[forrestgrump]

forrestgrump said:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B079TZLVT7/ref...

Gone with this, should’ve specified budget. Got an awful slope out front on a small strip so this should be good for that. Shall report back.

Report back: quite poor. Handles it fine on the longer settings 5 and 4, but anything lower and it really struggles and cuts out. Nowhere near powerful enough to get through a decent lawn. It'll be going back but not sure whether to go for a 60v and keep trying the cordless idea, or get a petrol mower.

[r44flyer]

Looks absolutely cracking, MrChips! Please tell me... what are you overseeding with, did you lay it from turf, and do you fertilise? Thanks!

[dhutch]

MrChips said:

I’m quite happy now with how mines coming along in the nicer weather. Still got some poa in patches and I’ll be doing a second round of overseeding next week I think.

Lush!

[dhutch]

forrestgrump said:

forrestgrump said:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B079TZLVT7/ref...

Gone with this, should’ve specified budget. Got an awful slope out front on a small strip so this should be good for that. Shall report back.

Report back: quite poor. Handles it fine on the longer settings 5 and 4, but anything lower and it really struggles and cuts out. Nowhere near powerful enough to get through a decent lawn. It'll be going back but not sure whether to go for a 60v and keep trying the cordless idea, or get a petrol mower.

Tbf, it does look awful!

What is your budget? Lawn size/area? Type of cut required? Secondhand an option?

[ChocolateFrog]

dhutch said:

forrestgrump said:

forrestgrump said:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B079TZLVT7/ref...

Gone with this, should’ve specified budget. Got an awful slope out front on a small strip so this should be good for that. Shall report back.

Report back: quite poor. Handles it fine on the longer settings 5 and 4, but anything lower and it really struggles and cuts out. Nowhere near powerful enough to get through a decent lawn. It'll be going back but not sure whether to go for a 60v and keep trying the cordless idea, or get a petrol mower.

Tbf, it does look awful!

What is your budget? Lawn size/area? Type of cut required? Secondhand an option?

I'd expect the battery alone to cost more than that mower for something that does a decent job.

[forrestgrump]

dhutch said:

forrestgrump said:

forrestgrump said:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B079TZLVT7/ref...

Gone with this, should’ve specified budget. Got an awful slope out front on a small strip so this should be good for that. Shall report back.

Report back: quite poor. Handles it fine on the longer settings 5 and 4, but anything lower and it really struggles and cuts out. Nowhere near powerful enough to get through a decent lawn. It'll be going back but not sure whether to go for a 60v and keep trying the cordless idea, or get a petrol mower.

Tbf, it does look awful!

What is your budget? Lawn size/area? Type of cut required? Secondhand an option?

In fairness, the ease of using it is amazing and it's really light for the gradient I have out front, so the theory is sound but I'd like the lawn a little shorter which it doesn't agree with. Front and rear lawns are 50 square metres a piece so not massive, looking at £200ish and would rather have something with a roller, so secondhand seems to be the way to go.

Does give a nice result but doesn't half complain about it.