The 2024 Lawn Thread

[Stedman]

The Three D Mucketeer said:

Am I correct in assuming it's driven from the driven wheels , in which case it can't be rotating very fast or with much torque ? Please explain
Just seems a little odd on a rotary mower rather than a cylinder.

It'll attach to my scarifier, so driven directly to axle

[The Three D Mucketeer]

Stedman said:

The Three D Mucketeer said:

Am I correct in assuming it's driven from the driven wheels , in which case it can't be rotating very fast or with much torque ? Please explain
Just seems a little odd on a rotary mower rather than a cylinder.

It'll attach to my scarifier, so driven directly to axle

That makes sense... I have both a scarifier and verti cutter on my Allett ... I only use the verti cutter in summer when the grass runners are spreading, at the moment I think it's too wet to scarify , I like the grass roots to be in the ground a bit firmer. We could do with some dry weather

[Howard-]

Howard- said:

With the patching in mind, last year I used Lawnsmith's "Staygreen" which is supposed to be a decent hard wearing all-rounder. But I must admit I wasn't hugely impressed with the results.

Has anyone got any recommendations for a different one they like?

Anyone?

I'd love to give mine another mow and start working on it... if it would ever stop raining for more than 8 minutes All I seem to be doing currently is raking up all the flowers that fall off the bloody Camellia tree!

[dhutch]

Howard- said:

Howard- said:

With the patching in mind, last year I used Lawnsmith's "Staygreen" which is supposed to be a decent hard wearing all-rounder. But I must admit I wasn't hugely impressed with the results.

Has anyone got any recommendations for a different one they like?

Anyone?

I'd love to give mine another mow and start working on it... if it would ever stop raining for more than 8 minutes All I seem to be doing currently is raking up all the flowers that fall off the bloody Camellia tree!

I'm currently using "Staygreen" too but haven't branched out into trying anything else. What was unimpressive?

Feel you pain with the Camellia flowers, great wet lumps of rotting petal mess and lots of it!


Daniel

[Howard-]

dhutch said:

Howard- said:

Howard- said:

With the patching in mind, last year I used Lawnsmith's "Staygreen" which is supposed to be a decent hard wearing all-rounder. But I must admit I wasn't hugely impressed with the results.

Has anyone got any recommendations for a different one they like?

Anyone?

I'd love to give mine another mow and start working on it... if it would ever stop raining for more than 8 minutes All I seem to be doing currently is raking up all the flowers that fall off the bloody Camellia tree!

I'm currently using "Staygreen" too but haven't branched out into trying anything else. What was unimpressive?

Feel you pain with the Camellia flowers, great wet lumps of rotting petal mess and lots of it!


Daniel

The "yield" (for want of a better word) just didn't seem great. Didn't get very thick coverage. Some of the areas are quite shady but others ok.

https://www.lawnsmith.co.uk/shadygreen-lawn-grass-... I'm going to give this a go in some of the darker/damper areas of the lawn I think

[The Three D Mucketeer]

Howard- said:

The "yield" (for want of a better word) just didn't seem great. Didn't get very thick coverage. Some of the areas are quite shady but others ok.

https://www.lawnsmith.co.uk/shadygreen-lawn-grass-... I'm going to give this a go in some of the darker/damper areas of the lawn I think

I spend my time trying to get rid of Rye grass and Poa Annua , so I wouldn't be spending money on it and putting it on my lawn . but if you can't get fescue alone to grow in the shade I suppose it may be required. I don't get the bent content , because I've never managed to get bent to germinate with any great success.

[phil270]

Feel like I’m having a stand off with the lawn this year and if I should cut it or not.

We moved into a new build house about two and a half years ago. Managed to do a fairly decent job of keeping the lawns in good shape. Quite hard work given the awful clay soil you end up with a new build and poor turf. I was pretty happy with the lawns last year.

This winter we had loads more rain and parts of the back and front garden got water logged. I did discover a brick down a drain at the front of the house that certainly did not helped matters….

The grass is growing but the ground is still so wet and soft to walk on. Can see a few areas where moss has set in.

It’s definitely not terrible but worried cutting it will do a load more damage that I will have to repair.

Badly need a few dry days but that looks like wishful thinking.

[AC43]

James-gbg1e said:

joestifff said:

A quick question for this thread, as I think it is grass related.

Woke up to 100s of these all on our patio. I swept majority up into a pile and poured boiling water on them. But can anyone confirm what they are. About 1 inch long. Grub like. Not like a worm.

These are Leather jackets and they will (try to) completely destroy your grass by eating every tasty grass root they can.

The only way to control them is literally a single product your have to cover your grass with and that will kill them, but depending on how big your lawn is that can be completely impractical.

May need to re-seed after their season is done, but they typically return year on year!

My lawn was badly waterlogged for much of the winter and I lost a lot of grass and gained a lot of moss. And some bare patches.

Three weeks ago I set about cutting in, scarifying it and feeding it plus I put down a load of sand, topsoil and seed.

Imagine my joy when I saw a fking army of leatherjackets emerge just as I was finishing the job.

I've never had them before so I assume it was the unusual conditions.

Will the little fkers still be munching away or is that phase gone now?

Also, what's the treatment you're referring to?

ETA; looks like Nemasys should do the job.

Edited by AC43 on Tuesday 2nd April 20:54

[CrgT16]

Just scarified and raked it today… it’s a large lawn I am knackered. Plan to to top dress/level/reseed as soon as the weather allows. Chucking some pre seed fertilizer on it to give it a head start. Let’s see how it goes

[Stedman]

CrgT16 said:

Just scarified and raked it today… it’s a large lawn I am knackered. Plan to to top dress/level/reseed as soon as the weather allows. Chucking some pre seed fertilizer on it to give it a head start. Let’s see how it goes

Some pre seed are due a few day/weeks after seeding, worth checking with the manufacturer. Apologies if this is old news

[joestifff]

AC43 said:

James-gbg1e said:

joestifff said:

A quick question for this thread, as I think it is grass related.

Woke up to 100s of these all on our patio. I swept majority up into a pile and poured boiling water on them. But can anyone confirm what they are. About 1 inch long. Grub like. Not like a worm.

These are Leather jackets and they will (try to) completely destroy your grass by eating every tasty grass root they can.

The only way to control them is literally a single product your have to cover your grass with and that will kill them, but depending on how big your lawn is that can be completely impractical.

May need to re-seed after their season is done, but they typically return year on year!

My lawn was badly waterlogged for much of the winter and I lost a lot of grass and gained a lot of moss. And some bare patches.

Three weeks ago I set about cutting in, scarifying it and feeding it plus I put down a load of sand, topsoil and seed.

Imagine my joy when I saw a fking army of leatherjackets emerge just as I was finishing the job.

I've never had them before so I assume it was the unusual conditions.

Will the little fkers still be munching away or is that phase gone now?

Also, what's the treatment you're referring to?

ETA; looks like Nemasys should do the job.

Edited by AC43 on Tuesday 2nd April 20:54

I put the Nematodes down nearly a week ago, we are seeing less on the patio, It could be the Nematodes. However, it could be because they are all drowning in all the standing water we have on the grass at the moment. I have never known so much water.

[AdeTuono]

First 'proper' cut over the weekend, after a couple of high passes, and it's come up OK, considering parts of it were so waterlogged over the winter that it was impossible to walk on. This is with no feed, no scarifying and no moss treatment. Can only get better over the summer.

[Gad-Westy]

One for you lawn wizards.

Quick back story.

Sept 23, we had a lot of the garden re-profiled and cleared a lot of trees and bushes removed to claim some new lawn space. Probably around 400sqm of area recovered.

Oct 23, I bought a load of grass seed. Kept half of it back but spread half of it on the newly claimed bare areas and a few poor patches of the existing lawn. No prep, just scattered it on top. I wasn't expecting it to necessarily do much at that time of year but thought it might give us a head start before chucking the rest of the seed down this spring. It actually did remarkably well and by the end of october, everything was looking pretty green.

Feb 24, I had a trench dug with a mini digger diagonally across the entire garden. This cut through a little bit of my new bit of lawn and a lot of the existing. Generally the place was a mess. Even though the trench is only 300mm wide, the earth removed was stacked to the sides and the mini digger chewed up plenty of other grass so things were looking pretty bare again.

March 24, I laid down the remainder of the grass seed over everything that was looking bare. So far, 3-4 weeks in, it's doing nothing! Most of the seed appears to just be sat on the surface still.

You may be able to tell but this is not my area of expertise. Is this a weather problem? It is utterly miserable here and ha been for weeks. Generally everything is failry wet at the moment with the occassional day of sunshine. I have noticed the good areas of grass and exactly rocketing up either.

Or does grass seed have a shelf life?

Should i have done some prep? I was maybe over confident after it took so easily last autumn.

[MDUBZ]

Seed does have a shelf life but if it's only a year old providing it's been stored in a cool dry place i wouldn't expect it perform too badly. Soil temps need to be consistently in the 8-10C range for seed to germinate.

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

Gad-Westy said:

March 24, I laid down the remainder of the grass seed over everything that was looking bare. So far, 3-4 weeks in, it's doing nothing! Most of the seed appears to just be sat on the surface still.

March in the far north of England would have been too cold for germination of grass seed.

What matters is the soil temperature, not the perceived general temperature. And soil temperature lags behind the general temperature, taking a long time to warm up in spring. A few days of apparently warm weather in early spring is nowhere near enough to raise the soil temperature, which really needs to be at least 10°C.

This explains why you had good success in October: the soil holds onto its warmth in autumn even after the weather has cooled off.

Now it’s early April, and even in southern England I still think it’s a bit too early. I’ve got a few thin patches to overseed, but I’m holding off for another couple of weeks.

If your seed is still visible on the surface, I’d buy lots of bags of cheapo compost from B&Q, and scatter a thin covering on top - just enough to hide the seed from the pigeons, but no more than that. Take handfuls of the stuff and rub it between your hands, allowing it to fall to the ground. In fact, I recommend doing this whenever you sow grass seed - it improves germination rate noticeably.

The seed is probably just biding its time, and you may find it popping up in a few weeks’ time if you can stop the pigeons eating it.

[Gad-Westy]

Thanks both. That does explain a lot and gives me a plan. Really appreciate it.

[tperry]

We are just coming to the end of a renovation on our house and would like to start getting the lawn in order but could do with some advice. The problem is it's full of rubble. I'm slowly picking up the bigger bits, but we still have loads of the smaller bits which my lawnmower is hating me for. The lawn is fairly sizeable 0.5 - 0.75 of an arce. I've started raking sections but its slow going and the results are not ideal. Do any tools exist for this kind of job?

I don't have much of a budget this year so would just like to clean it up to start with.

[brums evil twin]

This weekend was spring lawn jobs

2 very short cuts (well as short as my little mower would go)
2 passes with electric spring tine (cheap electric scarifier with the spring tine attachment)
spiked
lawnsmiths hardwearing seed
lawnsmiths spring fertiliser
and top dressed with a light covering of compost

all equals a lovely new camouflage design!!!!

[brums evil twin]

[brums evil twin]

the lawn had survived pretty well over the winter this year, even with all the rain.

Moss had taken in quite a few places but a couple of treatments over the last couple of weeks had blackened it all ready for this weekend.

So hopefully the foundations are in for a nice summer looking lawn