2023 Lawn Thread

[boyse7en]

Dr Mike Oxgreen said:

boyse7en said:

Is now a good time to scarify my lawn and add some seed to the bare bits, or is it too wet? Got clay soil so I'm nervous about compaction.

No, it’s too early.

Scarifying is an aggressive process that unavoidably damages the lawn. It relies on the grass growing actively so that it repairs itself reasonably quickly and comes back stronger. You therefore need to wait until the grass is growing strongly, not just ticking over as it is now. Also, autumn is a far better time to scarify than spring in my opinion, because the soil temperature is much warmer.

And putting seed down now is also too early. It’s the soil temperature, not the air temperature, that determines when it’s time to seed - you need a soil temperature of about 10°C, and we’re nowhere near that, even in the south of the country. Soil temperature lags behind the air temperature, so a few warm-ish days won’t raise the soil temperature by much. And we haven’t really had any significantly warm days yet.

I see you’re in Devon, so you can probably start these things earlier than most, but it’s still too early even for you, in my opinion. The next few weeks should hopefully change things significantly, so it’s well worth waiting until at least early-to-mid April. You’ll get much better results. I’d just give it a thorough raking rather than a full-on scarification, then get your seed down and cover it with a thin layer of compost or topsoil (no more than a few millimetres).

Edited by Dr Mike Oxgreen on Saturday 11th March 08:03

Thanks. Looks like my Easter weekend will be spent rake in hand 😁

[dhutch]

BigRickus said:

Missed a crucial step last autumn and didn’t winter fertilise. Lawn a bit mossy, bit ‘limp’ and yellow etc at the moment.
Will be starting to think about spring maintenance in a month or sos time but is there any product I can get on the lawn to do the next 4-6 weeks, toughen it and get it ready for a light scarify and over seed in late April.
Want sure if a garden center combined weed/feed/moss killer type thing would be worth a go.
Based just outside west London.
Many thanks!

Will be interested what others say as I'm in the same boat, but I would favour a spring 'fertiliser only' product at the moment, certainly I think the weed element will do little at this time of year certainly with the cold wave, and it's a bit early to be moss killing.

That said, if it's the easiest thing to do, and it's a small enough lawn that cost isn't and issue, a half or 30% dose application of an all in one spring+summer will do little harm and likely encourage a a bit more early growth.

[Techno9000]

dhutch said:

BigRickus said:

.... Lawn a bit mossy, bit ‘limp’ and yellow etc at the moment.
Will be starting to think about spring maintenance in a month or sos time but is there any product I can get on the lawn to do the next 4-6 weeks, toughen it and get it ready for a light scarify and over seed in late April.
Want sure if a garden center combined weed/feed/moss killer type thing would be worth a go....

Will be interested what others say as I'm in the same boat, but I would favour a spring 'fertiliser only' product at the moment, certainly I think the weed element will do little at this time of year certainly with the cold wave, and it's a bit early to be moss killing.

Liquid iron sulphate for killing the moss and greening the lawn at this point (Feb / March).

I was in your situation a few weeks ago, the lawn was not uniformly green with interspersed yellowed blades and moss obvious. Now the moss has all but disappeared and the lawn is lush.

I'm waiting for slightly warmer weather, and growth to start, before scarifying and overseeding.

Edited by Techno9000 on Saturday 11th March 20:45

[dhutch]

Time to order the years consumables?
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/1...

[epsilonvaz]

Did my order yesterday. Every year I end up waiting too late in the season to do jobs. Not this year, at the first sign of sustained growth I will lightly scarify and get that seed down.

Hollow tine - maybe if I am feeling particularly flush, It's about £100 to hire the machine for a day, seems a lot for some aeration.

[Condi]

Applied iron sulphate to my lawn carpet of moss yesterday. In a couple of week's time when it stops raining will be perfect for scarifying, although will probably be April by then. The back end of this winter has been quite cold and dull, things are taking a long time to get going this year. Also ordered some specific types of grass seed for the different areas of the lawn, hopefully adding some clover to the front grass will help it fight off the moss, and then some drought resistant varieties to the back lawn will help prevent a repeat of last year where it all just died.

[Bonefish Blues]

What happens if dead moss is simply left?

[markh1]

Are the spring loader scarifiers that you mount to a lawn tractor any good? It's either buy one of those or hire a petrol one each year

[Sford]

markh1 said:

Are the spring loader scarifiers that you mount to a lawn tractor any good? It's either buy one of those or hire a petrol one each year

I went all out and bought the agrifab smartlink platform.

https://www.agri-fab.com/Products/Groomer/smartlin...

I got the tine de-thatcher, the plug aerator and a spike aerator. So far it's been good although it does take up quite a lot of space. It was a faff to start with weights wise as I was trying to use bricks. Then I just bought some weight lifting discs from Facebook marketplace and it was much easier.

[markh1]

Sford said:

I went all out and bought the agrifab smartlink platform.

https://www.agri-fab.com/Products/Groomer/smartlin...

I got the tine de-thatcher, the plug aerator and a spike aerator. So far it's been good although it does take up quite a lot of space. It was a faff to start with weights wise as I was trying to use bricks. Then I just bought some weight lifting discs from Facebook marketplace and it was much easier.

Yeah thats the sort of thing I have been looking at however with a powered scarifier the tines pass through the grass a lot more times that something that is just pulled. How effective do you find it? Storing the thing is also a consideration particularly as it will be only used at most twice a year!

[Sford]

I've not used an electric so can't really compare however it removed plenty of the moss last spring. I just drove round and around with it. Part of the area is underneath some oak trees and had little work for the last 30+ years so was mostly moss. It's a lot better now after just one year of use; I did use it twice at the start, first to remove the bulk of stuff and then left it time recover before going over again. Once overseeded the lawn was the best it's ever been. It's also really useful if you have a gravel driveway as you can drive around towing it making everything look fresh.

Storage wise I've done what they do in the pic, it's at the side of the shed upright and then the accessories on the wall with hooks. At one stage I had a lot of mowers in the shed and they were in the way but now I've economised they aren't a problem.

[Condi]

markh1 said:

Yeah thats the sort of thing I have been looking at however with a powered scarifier the tines pass through the grass a lot more times that something that is just pulled. How effective do you find it?

Spring tines can exert a lot of downward force and will have no problems puling moss out the grass. They work in a slightly different way to an electric rotary scarifier, but farmers use spring tine cultivators for creating seed beds and tilling after harvest - having the force to pull up some moss will be easy by comparison.

[gfreeman]

Was concerned at the impact and cost of chemical fertilisers. We have just had a pool built and spread the spoil over a third of our not so brilliant lawn of about an acre, which suffered in last year’s drought.
Plan is to add topsoil, grade and seed when it all dries out a bit - hopefully next month.

So I thought I would try this product…. A farmer friend who uses this swears by it and he says it is the industry’s best kept secret - so secret no-one has heard of it.
https://www.supersoil.ie/en-gb

Time will tell but I thought it was worth a punt! (see what I did there?).

[Condi]

gfreeman said:

So I thought I would try this product…. A farmer friend who uses this swears by it and he says it is the industry’s best kept secret - so secret no-one has heard of it.
https://www.supersoil.ie/en-gb

An Irishman selling something too good to be true? Well I never.

What would be interesting would be if you sprayed it on half the lawn and then could compare the 2. If you cover the whole lawn in it there is no way of knowing what it's actually doing.

[gfreeman]

Condi said:

An Irishman selling something too good to be true? Well I never.

What would be interesting would be if you sprayed it on half the lawn and then could compare the 2. If you cover the whole lawn in it there is no way of knowing what it's actually doing.

Good idea.

Have a listen to some of the testimonials. My mate knows a bloke who knows a bloke who knows Nick Cooper, the Agronomist at Microlife Ltd who is featured in the testimonials, so they appear legit.

I’m not selling the stuff - just fed up with expensive fertiliser/seaweed/etc. from previous houses and having a poor lawn at our new gaff, mainly due to the rubbish half inch of topsoil on rubble. Except for the bit the moles like!

[RichB]

Bonefish Blues said:

What happens if dead moss is simply left?

Generally t just comes back again

[Bonefish Blues]

Spores? Or not dealing with the issues that made it prevail in the first place?

[RichB]

Bonefish Blues said:

Spores? Or not dealing with the issues that made it prevail in the first place?

Yes, both of those. The thing is FeSO3 doesn't kill the moss like a herbicide, it's the salts in it that dehydrate the moss. I assume it's sufficiency persistent that eventually it cal recover.

[Stedman]

Just applied ferrous sulphate.

'It begins'

epsilonvaz said:

Hollow tine - maybe if I am feeling particularly flush, It's about £100 to hire the machine for a day, seems a lot for some aeration.

SE here. I got a lawn chap in to scarify and aerate maybe 80sqm, cost around £80.

Edited by Stedman on Monday 13th March 14:10

[markh1]

Sford said:

I've not used an electric so can't really compare however it removed plenty of the moss last spring. I just drove round and around with it. Part of the area is underneath some oak trees and had little work for the last 30+ years so was mostly moss. It's a lot better now after just one year of use; I did use it twice at the start, first to remove the bulk of stuff and then left it time recover before going over again. Once overseeded the lawn was the best it's ever been. It's also really useful if you have a gravel driveway as you can drive around towing it making everything look fresh.

Storage wise I've done what they do in the pic, it's at the side of the shed upright and then the accessories on the wall with hooks. At one stage I had a lot of mowers in the shed and they were in the way but now I've economised they aren't a problem.

Ok that's very helpful thankyou!

Didnt think about the gravel drive element as we have about 200 feet of gravel drive which I was occasionally trying to hand rake!