2021 Lawn thread

[kentlad]

Semmelweiss said:

Good looking after such a short time.

You can put a low nutrient fertiliser on now. Definitely not a high nitrogen one, since that will just encourage top leaf growth. IOW, none of the 3-in1 shed stuff. What you need is for the roots to grown down.

Don't overdose the fertiliser, or else you'll burn and kill the grass.

Agrigem like this is ideal, but you'll not likely get it in by the weekend! Enough to last your lawn (from it's apparent size) 2 years. It's a good all year fertiliser.

9-7-7 Nutrigrow Spring Lawn Fertiliser 25kg

https://www.agrigem.co.uk/fertilisers/lawn-turf-fe...

Amazing, thank you!!!

[RichB]

forrestgrump said:

RichB said:

Today will be fine. What fertiliser have you got, I assume it's granules? Not 4-in-1 I hope!

Out of interest what's wrong with the 4-in-1? Had good results with it tbh, albeit on an established lawn if that was the reason for the warning.

I prefer not to feed the grass and try to kill weeds at the same time but more specifically it's better to separate the treatments so you know what you're applying, at what rates and when. e.g. don't put Weedol on if you don't need it, decide if you need iron sulphate for moss or green-up or both, decide if you want nitrogen for growth or phosphorus for roots etc.

However, and more to the point, in the case of Kentlad's lawn, I believe it was recently seeded so I would avoid putting any weedkiller on, like 4-in-1.

[dhutch]

Yeah, mainly that you often don't need/want all the components.

Ie, you want to feed but don't have weeds or moss.

Also I find it's quite a lot more sensitive to dose-rate than most other single products, so scorching is a real issue.

Daniel

[DonkeyApple]

DonkeyApple said:

DonkeyApple said:

Front lawn finally shaved down to one mower level below where I wish to maintain it.



Having just not had my times coincide with enough dry weather I'd only been able to keep doing quick cuts at the highest setting of the mower until last week. As a result there's quite a bit of moss through the lawn but hopefully now the grass is short enough it will not have such good conditions.

Ended up running the petrol rake over it at a modest level last night. There was so much moss and so many little bumps that it just made sense to take out a load and to break up all the lumps.



Raked it by hand this morning into a Mohican, or is it a Brazilian before using the leaf blower to pile it up and dispose of.



Then ran the sit on over it to pick up the remainder before putting a final cut in one step lower.

All done now so all that remains is the fun of seeing how well it comes back. There are some zones where there's clearly a mat of moss and bits that will possibly struggle but I'll deal with those next month if it looks like there will be a week of wet weather.

[Img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51308953433_5cabbc82a7_c.jpg[/thumb]

Put a cut in today while it wasn't raining. It's come back well. Ant nests showing well for easier treatment, a bit of over seeding ahead of the next block of rain wouldn't go amiss and prior to that another go at whacking the speedwell that's in various places and very stubborn.

[CarDoodle]

Hi guys, I use a green thumb style service to fertilise the grass. They’ve quoted me around £40 for red thread treatment and £80-ish for hollow time aeration. I’ve got a scarifier so I will do that myself.

Is red thread treatment for £40 worthwhile? The garden is relatively small and they “advised” it on their regular visit.

Aeration I’m more familiar with having had it previously - again does that seem a sensible price and worth doing? Soil can be quite clay like in places.

Never sure if they just recommend everything regardless so good to check!

[jinkster]

CarDoodle said:

Hi guys, I use a green thumb style service to fertilise the grass. They’ve quoted me around £40 for red thread treatment and £80-ish for hollow time aeration. I’ve got a scarifier so I will do that myself.

Is red thread treatment for £40 worthwhile? The garden is relatively small and they “advised” it on their regular visit.

Aeration I’m more familiar with having had it previously - again does that seem a sensible price and worth doing? Soil can be quite clay like in places.

Never sure if they just recommend everything regardless so good to check!

We use Greenthumb and pay £17 each visit (they are due on Friday actually). and they are very good. We haven't seen a weed on the lawn for nearly 3 years. The moss is still a bit of a pain during the winter but we scarify it ourselves.

[hotchy]

So I went out and fed my grass for the first time ever. I obviously walked in zig zags since the front grass now has a perfect zig zag of long green grass while the rest hasn't. Must get more feed now.

[Muncher]

I'm planning to kill off my grass with Glyphosate in a couple of weeks and reseed and was wondering if anyone had any tips?

I am doing this because it has settled unevenly following building work (it has been down 4 yearss) and it also has lots of very pronounced spots of meadow grass that I want rid of. I already have the replacement seed and fertiliser and was planning to spray it off, give it a couple of days to take, then cover with black plastic for 2 weeks to rot away the existing grass, then level and reseed.

Does that sound like a good idea?

[Jaymo90]

Any thoughts on what this may be? Got patches of what appear to be dead strands coming through and only getting worse…




Trying to cut as frequently as possible on a high setting as we are east facing and suffer with moss. Was watering on a timer during the dryer weeks but at 5am. Am I doing something wrong?

[CaptainHindsight]

Been away for 2 weeks and came home to find 10 or so ant hills have appeared in my lawn. Couple of examples below:



Anyone got any good tips for remediating, without killing the lawn?

[r44flyer]

CaptainHindsight said:

Been away for 2 weeks and came home to find 10 or so ant hills have appeared in my lawn. Couple of examples below:



Anyone got any good tips for remediating, without killing the lawn?

I tend to just thoroughly soak them in water from hose or butt, over and over a few times over a day and they give up and move on to somewhere more hospitable like the beds. I mean standing water on top of them for 10mins a time.

[r44flyer]

CarDoodle said:

Hi guys, I use a green thumb style service to fertilise the grass. They’ve quoted me around £40 for red thread treatment and £80-ish for hollow time aeration. I’ve got a scarifier so I will do that myself.

Is red thread treatment for £40 worthwhile? The garden is relatively small and they “advised” it on their regular visit.

Aeration I’m more familiar with having had it previously - again does that seem a sensible price and worth doing? Soil can be quite clay like in places.

Never sure if they just recommend everything regardless so good to check!

Red thread is difficult to get rid of and if the conditions are good for it (warm and damp) it will appear quickly if your lawn is susceptible to it. Treatments can be hit and miss and oftwn applied to late to save the damage. Some varieties of grass are more resistant so consider overseeding with one of those. Otherwise, a high nitrogen feed at the first sign of it will help the grass grow out of it. Apply it when conditions are perfect for red thread. Something like MiracleGro lawn food is 36N and is applied as a liquid feed from a hose attachment. Works well for me.

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

Jaymo90 said:

Any thoughts on what this may be? Got patches of what appear to be dead strands coming through and only getting worse…




Trying to cut as frequently as possible on a high setting as we are east facing and suffer with moss. Was watering on a timer during the dryer weeks but at 5am. Am I doing something wrong?

I have similar. I suspect it is Poa annua (annual meadow grass) which has died off having set seed and completed its lifecycle for this year.

[Promised Land]

jinkster said:

CarDoodle said:

Hi guys, I use a green thumb style service to fertilise the grass. They’ve quoted me around £40 for red thread treatment and £80-ish for hollow time aeration. I’ve got a scarifier so I will do that myself.

Is red thread treatment for £40 worthwhile? The garden is relatively small and they “advised” it on their regular visit.

Aeration I’m more familiar with having had it previously - again does that seem a sensible price and worth doing? Soil can be quite clay like in places.

Never sure if they just recommend everything regardless so good to check!

We use Greenthumb and pay £17 each visit (they are due on Friday actually). and they are very good. We haven't seen a weed on the lawn for nearly 3 years. The moss is still a bit of a pain during the winter but we scarify it ourselves.

I have had Green thumb for about a decade now, not one weed in sight, red thread comes and goes and they advise treatment at around what jinkster was quoted but I never bother, it does go on its own accord it seems or the next visit they don't bother putting it on that card.

I use a fork early spring to aerate mine, over a few days I just push it right in and wiggle it all over the lawn.

[Patch1875]

Red thread is rife just now. If it’s just brown grass patches and not die off(fairly rare) then just leave it to sort it out itself out.

Problem with the treatments they are expensive and won’t stop it coming back again just deal with what’s there.

I’ve got a lawn treatment company and only ever do a few treatments a year at the customers request tend just to watch and wait as it usually improves once it’s had a feed.

[CubanPete]

Where's the best place to buy the combined weed / feed / moss killer? The various large bags all seem to work out at about £27 ea. We have about half an acre of lawn, so need 4 bags at a time and it would be nice to get the cost down a bit.

[r44flyer]

CubanPete said:

Where's the best place to buy the combined weed / feed / moss killer? The various large bags all seem to work out at about £27 ea. We have about half an acre of lawn, so need 4 bags at a time and it would be nice to get the cost down a bit.

That's largely the going rate, I would say. I get most stuff from Pitchcare. I would say combined products are more domestic retail than professional use but they do one granular product ( https://www.pitchcare.com/shop/icl-sportsmaster-re... ) that works out at 3 bags per half acre, but once you've added postage etc...

If you buy in bulk they will offer a trade price so call them.

[Semmelweiss]

r44flyer said:

That's largely the going rate, I would say. I get most stuff from Pitchcare. I would say combined products are more domestic retail than professional use but they do one granular product ( https://www.pitchcare.com/shop/icl-sportsmaster-re... ) that works out at 3 bags per half acre, but once you've added postage etc...

If you buy in bulk they will offer a trade price so call them.

I use this product early in the season. It's probably not the right time of the year in the UK to be doing so, early Spring (mid to late April) is the ideal time. Right now high Nitrogen is pushing it.

I've had no weeds and the winter moss was killed off.

It's the only combination product I'd recommend, through personal use.

[dhutch]

CubanPete said:

Where's the best place to buy the combined weed / feed / moss killer? .... would be nice to get the cost down a bit.

Would it not workout cheaper to out done individual non-combined products as and when required?

Certainly if feeding a couple of times a year, you likely don't need the selective weed killer each time.

[CubanPete]

dhutch said:

Would it not workout cheaper to out done individual non-combined products as and when required?

Certainly if feeding a couple of times a year, you likely don't need the selective weed killer each time.

It would possibly... But it is pretty rural around here, and the need to weedkill is I think greater than the need to feed...