Grass and Fence questions

Jase

Jase

Jase

Soldato
Joined
19 Oct 2002
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5,160
Location
Pembrokeshire
I'm trying to sort the garden and to be hones I'm clueless when it comes to gardening.

So 2 problems at the moment in a new house.

1) The grass is very patchy with spaces where there doesn't seem to be grass growing. There was a lot of weeds so I sprayed them last week but now the grass is all brown with just some greens coming through. Do I buy grass seed and use that in the places that need it, if so how do you plant grass seed?

Would it be easier just to get turf? and is that possible this time of year. I keep hearing an advert on a local radio station that says 'all year round'

2) The fence needs painting, I really want to make the job as easy as possible but not spend a fortune. I've seen fence paint sprayers advertised but can't remember what they were, any ideas and is it any good?
 
Grass seed is easier and cheaper than turf, just scatter where you want it water and wait.

Fence painting depends on the size if you've got lots to do s sprayer maybe worth the outlay if it's just a couple of panels I'd brush it.
 
Do you have concrete posts. You don't want to spray fence paint all over them. Painting fences with a sprayer is easier if you can take the panels out.

When scattering seed, it's best to mix it in with some new soil then water. If you just scatter it the birds will likely get it all. It needs to get 'in' the ground a bit.
 
Mercenary Keyboard Warrior said:
Screwfix have the fence sprayers and the treatment cheap

http://www.screwfix.com/p/ronseal-one-coat-fence-life-dark-oak-9ltr/7238r
http://www.screwfix.com/p/ronseal-pump-sprayer/38364#_=p

The sprayers are much quicker, but 2 issues, overspray so be careful whats behind the fence, and they take a while to clean out properly after use
Click to expand...

Thanks I'll give it a go at that price, I really dont want to spend a day with a brush! although maybe I'll use a brush near the neighbours conservatory :)

Bug One said:
Do you have concrete posts. You don't want to spray fence paint all over them. Painting fences with a sprayer is easier if you can take the panels out.

When scattering seed, it's best to mix it in with some new soil then water. If you just scatter it the birds will likely get it all. It needs to get 'in' the ground a bit.
Click to expand...

The posts are wooded, one broke which is the reason I'm going to paint it all again.

When you say new soil do you mean the stuff you can buy in a bag?

Also how often are you supposed to water it and how long does it take to grow?
 
Depending on the area involved, you can use fine netting to keep the birds off the seed. At my parents', we had a patch that had died off (it was under a shrub that came out). We gave the ground a bit of a working over as it was rock hard and added some Norfolk topsoil (20-25kg sacks) to level it out - it had craters. We then simply scattered seed over the area, gave it a final light dusting of topsoil and covered it with netting. Watering is important, you need to give it a good soaking but don't get it too wet. If it stays too wet for too long, the seeds could go mouldy/rot.

When you sprayed weedkiller, what did you use? Lawn weedkillers are typically selective and only attack broadleaf weeds - anything that isn't grass. If you used a general purpose herbicide like glyphosate, then that will affect anything it comes into contact with including the grass.
 
you should have used lawn weed and feed on your grass. kills moss, feeds the grass.

for new grass. seed is a lot cheaper. homebase you can buy 1.5kg of shady lawn seed for around £10. you want to water the area thoroughly the day before. break up the op layer of soil. rake it around after. then throw your seed around liberally. remember some of it will be duds, some will also be eaten by birds so throw plenty of it on. then throw some compost on top and rake it around. then you want to walk on it to pat it down. imitating wild buffaloes, cows, etc trodding ont he land as they would have done naturally in the past. basically the seed should be just below the top of the soil. then you want to water liberally for 2 weeks straight to coax the seeds out of their shells and then to grow. after that you don't want to water it at all. this is to promote strong root growth. they will dig deeper into the ground to find more water.

as for fence painting. forget sprayers. they go everywhere. unless there is zero wind and nothing behind the fence. e.g. you don't want to end up painting your neighbours windows with overspray. use a brush it won't take that long. use a roller if need be.

oh and aerate your lawn once every 6 months. it promotes growth getting fresh air down into the ground.
 
Jase said:
Thanks I'll give it a go at that price, I really dont want to spend a day with a brush! although maybe I'll use a brush near the neighbours conservatory :)
Click to expand...

No worries, obviously diff colours of the stain are there, I linked the one we use, which is a really nice dark colour

Conservatories are exactly the thing that will get some overspray you can detect. Only other option is ask them if you can wack a few dust sheets up on it just to catch any overspray.
If any gets on it, wash it off quick, its water soluble till dry

Just a tip from someone who knows. do not UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES trust a woman to have depressured the system before refilling. I trusted the "its got no pressure in it" and started to unwind the plunger (which is where you fill via built in funnel) to be in effect sprayed myself. There is a small valve to let the pressure out :)
 
Mercenary Keyboard Warrior said:
No worries, obviously diff colours of the stain are there, I linked the one we use, which is a really nice dark colour

Conservatories are exactly the thing that will get some overspray you can detect. Only other option is ask them if you can wack a few dust sheets up on it just to catch any overspray.
If any gets on it, wash it off quick, its water soluble till dry

Just a tip from someone who knows. do not UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES trust a woman to have depressured the system before refilling. I trusted the "its got no pressure in it" and started to unwind the plunger (which is where you fill via built in funnel) to be in effect sprayed myself. There is a small valve to let the pressure out :)
Click to expand...

LOL I'll keep that in mind, but that's a general rule of mine :) although I'm not quite sure I trust myself todo it either...

How far are we talking for overspray just in the area or does it travel far?
 
Not sprayed myself but you'd probably get specks appearing a couple of metres away. Try and do it on a still day, as in no wind at all, not even a breath.
 
Depends really, the main volume of overspray is kind of a very fine mist, so blows very easily and is undetectable on anything

More the issue is that the pressure is quite high so its forced out quite well, so any little cracks, gaps between panels and posts or missing knots etc create an opportunity for spray to go where it shouldn't, probably upto about 2M in a straight line I guess, but obviously due to gravity it gets lower as it travels.

Then you have the odd drip that will form and fall from the nozzle, although stopping every so often and putting some extra pressure back in with a few quick pumps reduces this significantly, happens at the end as your running out of liquid
 
I ended up doing it with the Ronseal One Coat (Medium Oak) and a brush! The main reason being that it forever windy here so I was a little worried about it getting blown everywhere.

I was surprised how runny and easy to apply the paint was so it didn't take long really.

I've still not sorted the grass though, not sure which way I'll go with that.
 
Rake the dead grass first. Then fork the area your putting the seed on. Then deposit £10 into my PayPal :-D

Fence panels - just use a brush. Sprayers are crap unless you can take the panels out as mentioned. You could spray them and then paint the posts which I think looks much.
 
I've recently moved into my house and have been battling with my front and back lawn for a couple of weeks now, the soil around my area is really dry and sandy and terrible for moss and weeds.
I was thinking about an artificial lawn for the front of the house as this gets less sun and therefore is prime for the moss to grow.

However, I bought some iron sulphate from the bay, mixed this up with warm water and spread it across the lawn, this killed off the moss over the next couple of days. I scarified the front lawn then and raked it, this nearly killed me as I did it by hand! filled a whole bins worth of dead moss and grass. chucked a shed load of grass seed over, aerated the soil by punching a load of holes in, watered it really well and put some lawn feed on for the other grass to grow too.... and its still crap :D
 
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