Caporegime
@BennyC some pure smut there.
Post Your Garden!
- Thread starter Jokester
- Start date
Soldato
This is ours, bit of a blank canvas at the moment. Only just moved in.
Soldato
Another lawn bites the dust. - I turfed this a good few years ago but over the last few years it's got patchy and just struggled with it - So out came the Glyosphate 360 and killed it all off along with the rockery - between now and next spring I will scarify and rake it then spray anything that comes up and reseed next year. - Anyone want a load of rocks.
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Soldato
I swapped the lawn mower that came with our house for one with height adjustment after getting it back to a good state (raking, seeding) and several weeds have come up. I'll pull them up by hand but was wondering how effective aftercut all in one and similar weed/moss treatments are? Does anyone use this and recommend it or is it snake oil?
Soldato
I use the evergreen complete 4 in 1 about twice a year and can recommend it. It is easy to mess it up though, i.e putting it on at the wrong time. Ideally, you need to put it down on a dry day (grass blades need to be dry so nothing sticks to them), then it needs to rain in the next few days. It's great for killing the moss (needs raking/scarifying out after though) and fertilizing the lawn. It does kill a lot of weeds but not all of them (clover for example). It also takes time to kill the weeds so don't expect results in your first week. I personally dig out any weeds when I see them when the ground is damp.
Soldato
@fobose thanks! I'll see how I get on with topping/ digging them out, if they come back regularly I'll consider that I think, it's just weeds at the moment but the roof does get a lot of moss so I wouldn't be surprised if the lawn does too. I have a box of feed that I've put down today and plan on putting down later in the year prior to it getting cold to keep it healthy.
Soldato
A key thing a lot of people miss is just cutting the grass regularly (once a week minimum). If you do that, it'll cut the tops of the weeds off and stop them seeding and taking over. Cut your grass on a high setting, mine is 50mm which helps keep in moisture and makes it more difficult for weeds to grow (less sun gets to the weed whilst its trying to grow). I've only weeded my grass once in the last 3 months and I dug out about 7 dandelions. I am way over due adding some more fertilizer.
P.S if you do go with the 4 in 1, I recommend using a proper spreader to ensure even coverage. I've done it by the hand spreaders that dispense as you walk along but it is very easy to miss area's so you end up with lots of lush dark green grass with many light green non fertilized stripes in your lawn.
This one is good as it has a handle that lets the fertizer out when you pull it. Very handy to make sure you don't over fertilize the edges as you turn around as that will scorch the lawn.
P.S if you do go with the 4 in 1, I recommend using a proper spreader to ensure even coverage. I've done it by the hand spreaders that dispense as you walk along but it is very easy to miss area's so you end up with lots of lush dark green grass with many light green non fertilized stripes in your lawn.
This one is good as it has a handle that lets the fertizer out when you pull it. Very handy to make sure you don't over fertilize the edges as you turn around as that will scorch the lawn.
Associate
After taking Lee's advice and wanting grass like his I went and got the same scarifier and thought I'd give it a go.
Shot of the garden before any work - Yes, it's an absolute mess
First pass using the scarifier on the highest setting turned out OK but left a lot of weeds still, so lowered it to it's lowest setting and went over it again. Sadly I then realised that the rather large old pool that was in the garden had been cut out by the sellers using an angle grinder (we requested it was removed before exchanging) and all the sub frame of the pool along with lots of sharp rusty metal were now sticking out the ground.
No pictures of the metal but there was a lot! By time we'd dug ~1.5ft down to remove it all, we decided that it was so uneven and tatty that we may as well go all the way and rip the whole lawn out.
A few weeks later and lots of hours of digging we've got all the lawn up, sledged the breeze blocks on the side of the wall that were 'decking' for the pool and we've started levelling it.
Also noticed all the decking around the smaller shed was rotted through, so ripped all of that out too. I'll build some stairs to get in and out of that at a later point I think.
Cleared half the mound down the sides of the shed and mancave at the back last night, now out of room, so need to work out what to do with the rest
I've got ~1000 litres of compost, 2kg of seed and fertilizer sat in the conservatory waiting to go on soon
Shot of the garden before any work - Yes, it's an absolute mess
First pass using the scarifier on the highest setting turned out OK but left a lot of weeds still, so lowered it to it's lowest setting and went over it again. Sadly I then realised that the rather large old pool that was in the garden had been cut out by the sellers using an angle grinder (we requested it was removed before exchanging) and all the sub frame of the pool along with lots of sharp rusty metal were now sticking out the ground.
No pictures of the metal but there was a lot! By time we'd dug ~1.5ft down to remove it all, we decided that it was so uneven and tatty that we may as well go all the way and rip the whole lawn out.
A few weeks later and lots of hours of digging we've got all the lawn up, sledged the breeze blocks on the side of the wall that were 'decking' for the pool and we've started levelling it.
Also noticed all the decking around the smaller shed was rotted through, so ripped all of that out too. I'll build some stairs to get in and out of that at a later point I think.
Cleared half the mound down the sides of the shed and mancave at the back last night, now out of room, so need to work out what to do with the rest
I've got ~1000 litres of compost, 2kg of seed and fertilizer sat in the conservatory waiting to go on soon
Soldato
I do not envy you one bit - I have done two lawns and am now on the third (see pics above) What I thought was going to be a breeze has ended like yours - After taking the grass up on last two lawns I just intended to scarify this one.
I have now found out why this lawn died - just under the grass it's just like a mat- Looks like tree/bush roots have invaded the lawn and formed a thick dense layer of matted roots.
Just been out to see if sliding the fork under them and levering up to try and lift them but no chance the fork tines just break through.
All I am going to do now is keep scarifying with metal blades for as long as it takes to get through this matting. I am just not up physically to dig it up anymore.
I have now found out why this lawn died - just under the grass it's just like a mat- Looks like tree/bush roots have invaded the lawn and formed a thick dense layer of matted roots.
Just been out to see if sliding the fork under them and levering up to try and lift them but no chance the fork tines just break through.
All I am going to do now is keep scarifying with metal blades for as long as it takes to get through this matting. I am just not up physically to dig it up anymore.
@Funky-Melon Crikey, looks like it has turned into a much bigger job than expected! It will be worth all the effort though. I wish I had done the same as my lawn not level in the slightest!
My latest little mission has been filling in the pond. I love having a water feature, however it is just too big and takes up a massive chunk of the garden. That and its a bit of a death trap!
Here it is before we emptied it. It was about 4-5 foot deep and app 9ft wide.
We gave all the fish away to local people who came along with buckets and took whatever they wanted. When we moved in 4 years ago we put 6 fish in the pond, they very quickly multiplied! I think we ended up with about 60-70 fish.
I now have a large hole to fill! The paving around the pond has been smashed up and put in the bottom. I have a load of Type 1 coming Saturday and a wacker plate so that's my weekend sorted.
I will finish the top 6-8 inches with top soil. The plan is to have an area of decking for nice seating area.
Grass is still doing well, weather has been very dry lately though so its getting a little yellow in places.
My latest little mission has been filling in the pond. I love having a water feature, however it is just too big and takes up a massive chunk of the garden. That and its a bit of a death trap!
Here it is before we emptied it. It was about 4-5 foot deep and app 9ft wide.
We gave all the fish away to local people who came along with buckets and took whatever they wanted. When we moved in 4 years ago we put 6 fish in the pond, they very quickly multiplied! I think we ended up with about 60-70 fish.
I now have a large hole to fill! The paving around the pond has been smashed up and put in the bottom. I have a load of Type 1 coming Saturday and a wacker plate so that's my weekend sorted.
I will finish the top 6-8 inches with top soil. The plan is to have an area of decking for nice seating area.
Grass is still doing well, weather has been very dry lately though so its getting a little yellow in places.
Associate
Yes we had a similar problem, just endless clumps of tiny roots.
Next up when the lawn is done is the replace all the fencing on the left of the garden and knock down that horrible half height wall on the right (no privacy, why do people build these?!) and put fencing up there too.
The little shed roof is collapsing in so I'm also rebuilding that at the moment and have turned off the electrics. Mancave at the back is built properly (thankfully). There's a veggie patch we're building between the fence at the end of the lawn and the mancave but it's covered in bindweed at the moment, that's a ****** to get rid of.
Associate
- Joined
- 23 Dec 2008
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Another person taking the grass off. Purchased the house in December and finally sorting the garden. Ground was very lumpy and a couple of ant nests. Thought I’d open them up to move them on, turns out the whole garden is pretty much an ant nest. So all grass is coming off and will level it. Concrete circle coming out this weekend, and shed going too. Bottom third of garden is a nightmare, membrane with gravel that is now covered by grass/weeds!
edit: garden looks a lot flatter in the pics, it’s very uneven level, especially towards the back. Oh and swarms of ants come out from under the concrete circle!
edit: garden looks a lot flatter in the pics, it’s very uneven level, especially towards the back. Oh and swarms of ants come out from under the concrete circle!
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Soldato
Roundup or Glysophate 360 will kill off bindweed but you need to keep on top of it when bit's you missed start growing -I used to spray single leaves here and there if it was in the hedge.
We also have ants everywhere - try and put the ant powder down on the holes on the night the flying ants leave nests.
Soldato
WELL !! - you couldn't make it up !! It's not roots that's holding the grass together - it bloody plastic netting -- seems the turf I purchased to do that lawn years ago was grown on plastic netting then soil thrown on top.
My scarifier doesn't even go deep enough to cut the net. Just tried digging a corner up and I can get the spade under about 3" down but can't cut the grass into sizes I can manage. So digging it up is out for the time being.
Can you hire scarifiers with blades that go down 3" - failing that perhaps a rotavator will do. I am not digging it !!!
If anyone want to level the ground before seeding there is a thread on lawn lutes three pages back on "Home and Garden- I have got all the bits to make one (they are expensive) -so far spent £8 as I have all the other bits from other projects
Edit changed "What man jobs" to Home and Garden
My scarifier doesn't even go deep enough to cut the net. Just tried digging a corner up and I can get the spade under about 3" down but can't cut the grass into sizes I can manage. So digging it up is out for the time being.
Can you hire scarifiers with blades that go down 3" - failing that perhaps a rotavator will do. I am not digging it !!!
If anyone want to level the ground before seeding there is a thread on lawn lutes three pages back on "Home and Garden- I have got all the bits to make one (they are expensive) -so far spent £8 as I have all the other bits from other projects
Edit changed "What man jobs" to Home and Garden
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Here is our garden. We moved into a new build around 18 months ago, the lawn was laid before we went in, but we had to address the tiny patio issue! First try I didnt really go far enough, so this year we expanded and now have enough entertaining space and the raised beds to give some interest around the seating areas.
Next job is to create beds around the edge of the garden with more tropical planting, including a bamboo screen along the one side we are overlooked from and another good sized palm.
So 2 1/2 years after moving in and I thought I better post an update, yes the neighbours garages are still there but its all filled out quite nicely to distract from that. Have been having some lawn treatments done which has resolved the dry patchiness and refusal to grow.
A few of the plants in raised bed will be replaced for next season as they are just getting too big and thirsty or just not performing well enough. Quite happy with my wildflower corner too.
Caporegime
Fabulous. Great work!