New lawn not looking well - need help to rescue

momo2007

momo2007

momo2007

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London
Hi all,
Need some advice how we can hopefully save our new lawn that was laid by a company on a bed of top soil and fertilizer in end of September. As advised we watered it every day apart from when it rained for 4 weeks. Lawn looked great, grass grew a lot. Then we mowed lawn perhaps too much.

Now, as pics show we have a lot of flat brown patches where turn edges are visible, which I think the grass is dead. The turf is still liftable and their is hardly any white roots to see.
Most of the brown patches were probably caused by me walking around (after 4 weeks of using wood planks to water lawn)which I don't know how you would avoid and also probably by all the leaves that fell and were not removed early enough.

Any suggestions on how to recover the lawn? Not sure why it still has not rooted? Should I start spreading lawn fertilizer now in coming January? Or seed all the brown flat patches?

https://ibb.co/X4fzx1k

https://ibb.co/FhGGNVN

https://ibb.co/ZgS42Qf

https://ibb.co/sgkk25s

https://ibb.co/Fgkd1cY

https://ibb.co/1QkM46Z

https://ibb.co/S3jYKCK



Advice appreciated.
Mo
 
There ain't no rescuing that. Its dead in most places. TBH it doesn't look like they did a great job in laying it given they couldn't even get the soil level flush with the paving on the right in one of the images. Not sure why it hasn't rooted though unless you have a leatherjacket problem :confused:

My advice would be to wait till Spring (around March/April) then:

  1. Scarify hard
  2. Soil down near the slabbing area to bring it up to the same level (you need to put some down, tramp it a little, put more down and repeat as if you just put some down, it will sink again over time)
  3. Grade the soil to match it into the rest of the garden i.e. a nice gentle slope to the beds
  4. Overseed (dont know what kind of soil you have or the orientation of the garden to recommend what type of seed)
  5. Water very lightly twice a day until shoots start coming through then reduce watering to once a week/fortnight (unless it rains) but long and deep watering
 
Thanks for the suggestions.

The Mrs will not be very happy to hear this as we spent quite a bit getting it laid by a turfing company instead of going for artificial turf!

Not sure about leather jacket problem, I did apply these to get rid of snails this spring https://www.nematodesdirect.co.uk/12-leatherjacket-killer-nematodes


The ground before the turf was laid, wasn't in a great condition, the builders had compacted a lot of the extension build rubble into it. I cleared bags of soil rubble and lightly rotated the soil. Perhaps it still to hard for the grass to penetrate?

The soil is dark black and loose but mixed heavily with sand and rubble.

The garden is west facing with a large pear tree and the turf we got was pro shade.

Would removing the turf ( I assume most can just be peeled back easily) be an alternative and start again with a raised soil up to level of paving be an alternative?
 
It doesn't look that bad to me. I would just leave it, maybe use a dibbler to pick out any weeds I see, and then throw a bit of grass seed over the brown patches at the appropriate time (whenever that is). I think if you just left it, it would recover OK. The grass will naturally spread into the brown areas in time. Personally, I would not be taking it up again.
 
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That's a bit oif a shame, I'd agree with the above really. It probably wasn't the most ideal time to lay but it is what it is.

You shouldn't have too much thatch so you may be able to get away without scarifying which may cause more damage than it saves if the grass hasn't rooted great, and then overseed and cover with top soil.
 
Hyburnate said:
That's a bit oif a shame, I'd agree with the above really. It probably wasn't the most ideal time to lay but it is what it is.

You shouldn't have too much thatch so you may be able to get away without scarifying which may cause more damage than it saves if the grass hasn't rooted great, and then overseed and cover with top soil.
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i wouldn't scarify it as it's a new lawn - but i'd certainly cut it right back to the lowest setting on the op's lawnmower, then overseed and a very light covering with topsoil as you've said. should bring it right back to life without ripping it all out and starting again.
 
Hyburnate said:
Totally agree.
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Does having a hardish rubble infested base soil stop the grass ever rooting? The section with the pallets in the image (L shaped garden) has remained the "best" being away from the tree and where the soil was well rotated and has minimal rubble compacted. When I mowed the lawn, it cut the grass very unevenly, high and low cuts which made the it look even worse then just leaving it uncut. Then the leaves started to shed from the tree and that's when it started to go downhill!
 
momo2007 said:
Does having a hardish rubble infested base soil stop the grass ever rooting? The section with the pallets in the image (L shaped garden) has remained the "best" being away from the tree and where the soil was well rotated and has minimal rubble compacted. When I mowed the lawn, it cut the grass very unevenly, high and low cuts which made the it look even worse then just leaving it uncut. Then the leaves started to shed from the tree and that's when it started to go downhill!
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It will prevent a healthy lawn certainly. I’m not a grass expert though.

Ultimately if you paid for a professional to lay this lawn with what you’re saying I think I’d be having them back to sort this.
 
Looks V similar to ours :(

Newbuild
99% Clay
Millions of leatherjackets

Dug out night on 65tonne of clay, refilled with decent soil, then topsoil and sand mixed on top, raked nicely so it looked all fancy.
Watered and chucked some feed down then laid rolawn gold medallion or w/e its called - meant to be top notch stuff.

Utter garbage - Patchy, all seems to grow at different speed, patchy and brown all over the place :(
Chucked a loada them nematodes at it and no notable difference

Really wish we has just gone artificial like we did in the last place, the annoying thing is it wasn't really that much cheaper than going plastic!
 
In addition to overseeding get a long roll of cling film and some galvanised pegs. Seed as above, water lightly and then peg strips of cling film over the seeds. If the temperature is over 10C you should see germination in less than a week and a good length of grass after 2. First few cuts cut leaving as long as you can and over the season gradually cut shorter. I moved to a new build and we finally got to do the lawn last year. I rotovated (and removed significant rubble), raised the edge by 10" and filled with good top spoil. I had a couple of patches that went brown, no idea why, and above sorted it in no time.
 
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