The 2024 Lawn Thread

[The Three D Mucketeer]

Finally some dry weather, so managed to mow the front lawn.



Cut at 11/12mm and took off a barrow load of clippings


The sward needs a lot of work to get it finer, it's had a dose of 4 in 1, but needs scarifying and verti cutting and maybe a sand dressing.I don't think I'm on the shortlist for the vacancy at Augusta National .

[AC43]

joestifff said:

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.

Insane amount of rain from Oct to now. Anyway, it's finally getting a little dryer and warmer. Looking forward to giving the lawn a good cut then drenching it in Nemasys.

[MDUBZ]

Gave mine a good hair cut tonight; I had to go over it a couple of times to pick up all the grass as despite being dry all day it was still pretty wet. The plan, I think, is to scarify tomorrow evening to get rid of the moss and then spike and give it a feed on sunday, scalp it next week and then overseed.

I have lots of weed grasses so i could do with verticutting or digging some out but I'm broad leaf free. The cinquefoil is back however


bd!

But no sign of this yet, I just keep hammering it with a spot treatment of weedol as it appears.


it could really do with leveling but I think that will have to wait till next year, the target is just thick and green for '24

General gardening weekend I think..
Clean hard areas ( I put patio magic down last week) and spray paths to clear them of weeds if not too windy

God I've gotten old..

[renmure]

I've spent the best part of a week digging out an area about the size of a badminton court and barrowing in gravel to make, well, a gravel area in my back garden. We moved here 18 months ago and I don't think this area has ever been anything other than wet mud or dry(ish) mud. Grass seed never got anywhere, water always sat on it when it rained and I even laid a bit of spare turf in one part and it went into mush fairly quickly.

I've now got a nice pile of rubble, concrete, bricks and assorted junk to take to the dump but the bonus of a nice clean area to think what I want to do with it.

[Gad-Westy]

renmure said:

I've spent the best part of a week digging out an area about the size of a badminton court and barrowing in gravel to make, well, a gravel area in my back garden. We moved here 18 months ago and I don't think this area has ever been anything other than wet mud or dry(ish) mud. Grass seed never got anywhere, water always sat on it when it rained and I even laid a bit of spare turf in one part and it went into mush fairly quickly.

I've now got a nice pile of rubble, concrete, bricks and assorted junk to take to the dump but the bonus of a nice clean area to think what I want to do with it.

Sounds like it would make a great badminton court

[renmure]

Gad-Westy said:

Sounds like it would make a great badminton court

[The Three D Mucketeer]

renmure said:

I've spent the best part of a week digging out an area about the size of a badminton court and barrowing in gravel to make, well, a gravel area in my back garden. We moved here 18 months ago and I don't think this area has ever been anything other than wet mud or dry(ish) mud. Grass seed never got anywhere, water always sat on it when it rained and I even laid a bit of spare turf in one part and it went into mush fairly quickly.

I've now got a nice pile of rubble, concrete, bricks and assorted junk to take to the dump but the bonus of a nice clean area to think what I want to do with it.

I thought you paid professionals to lay your grass ?

[renmure]

I had proper folk in to do the front so I can keep up with the neighbours in kerb appeal (shallow or wot) but I'm fine with keeping on top of the fertilizer and feeding and cutting.

I'm less anal about the back garden. It's about 1/2 acre, is pretty mossy in places but is mainly green. It's also home to a couple of German Shepherds playing around so never going to be anything other than "utility" but bits of it not being swampy is a plus.

[Cats_pyjamas]

I guessed this would be a good place to start to ask about grass seed. I have/in the process off leveling the garden (only by about 300mm at one end). Using soil excavated in the process of building a patio. It appears fairly healthy soil, the house is build on what was a horse paddock. This area will get most of the afternoon sun. What grass seed would be best, and where is the best place to buy it?!

[The Three D Mucketeer]

Cats_pyjamas said:

I guessed this would be a good place to start to ask about grass seed. I have/in the process off leveling the garden (only by about 300mm at one end). Using soil excavated in the process of building a patio. It appears fairly healthy soil, the house is build on what was a horse paddock. This area will get most of the afternoon sun. What grass seed would be best, and where is the best place to buy it?!

Boston Seeds in my opinion...if you want a quality fine lawn

https://www.bostonseeds.com/products/grass-seeds/

I always go for all fescue ... under golf course seed .... although they seem to have changed some of the mixes this year ... Bent grass seed is difficult to germinate and if you are Royal Lytham* St,. Annes maybe it's for you

[MDUBZ]

Keeping to plan.

Gave it a once over on the highest setting but after clearing up there was quite a bit of moss to remove still so dropped it a couple of settings and attacked the bad bit again. I've got that oh no what have I done feeling again.. gets me every time although each time I've done it the general scene looks less bad than the time before.






I think I'll feed it and give it an iron treatment and then seed in a couple of weeks...


Yesterday's v's today's efforts. She'll kill me; they don't get picked up till next Friday.

[The Three D Mucketeer]

They'll squash down by then
But you should be composting them

[MDUBZ]

The Three D Mucketeer said:

They'll squash down by then
But you should be composting them

Not a bad shout.. I might bag some up and take it down to the allotment; it's too far to drag the bins.

[Semmelweiss]

Verticut, scarified, scalped, fertilised, seeded and top-dressed the worst bits.

Hard graft for half a day, and now need rain.
Phil-E-Mow is resting until the growth is back up to 60mm.

[8-P]

Keen to scarify, but I always do it too early and sits looking rubbish for weeks and weeks. No temperatures better than 14 on the horizon so holding off for another few weeks that and covid got me, so energy levels are rubbish!

[DMAndy]

Looking at the soil temperature for this week and weekend, is it still too early to overseed?

It looks as though the average soil temperature is above 10 degrees but there are a few cold nights down to around 6 degrees.

https://soiltemperature.app/results?lat=50.897944&...

[AC43]

Update; well some of the feeding and overseeding has worked; there's more growth overall and it's greener than it was.

At the weekend I replaced some new (st) turf from a couple of weeks ago with some new (much better) stuff. Imagine my joy to find stacks of leatherjackets under each section of turf as I lifted them. I am well and truly infested.

I had some Nemasys to hand and so applied it directly before laying each new section and went on to treat the remaining lawn.

Hope this works othrewise it'll be spendy with the pros.

[Semmelweiss]

DMAndy said:

Looking at the soil temperature for this week and weekend, is it still too early to overseed?

It looks as though the average soil temperature is above 10 degrees but there are a few cold nights down to around 6 degrees.

https://soiltemperature.app/results?lat=50.897944&...

Soil temperature in the South will not drop below 9-10°C now until the end of October.

It's the perfect time to scarify and overseed right now. Sooner rather than later, since once the soil starts to dry out during May, you will then have to water it to keep the seedlings moist.

[pacenotes]

Just put down mobacter, As I had quite a bad moss issue. I want to overseed this weekend after scarifying last weekend.

Do I need to put down a pre seed feed before hand?

[Semmelweiss]

pacenotes said:

Just put down mobacter, As I had quite a bad moss issue. I want to overseed this weekend after scarifying last weekend.

Do I need to put down a pre seed feed before hand?

No. Mo-Bacter has a lot of nutrients in it. It smells like (chicken) manure... Personally, I didn't find it effective killing the moss, but then I have really acid soil.

I'd wait a week after a heavy rain before overseeding. This will give the Mo-Bacter an opportunity to break down and start to be absorbed into the soil.