Post Your Garden!

MrMarvelous · 16 Sep 2019 at 10:53

A before and after of what my garden used to look like - previous owners 'didn't like gardening'...

Before:

After:

Going Homebase later today to lay some turf on the right hand-side strip.

Andybtsn · 16 Sep 2019 at 11:04

Mine as of Saturday. I'm having a nightmare with the turf I laid two years ago, despite trying to overseed it there is still a lot of patches. I'm not sure if it's the soil beneath the grass or just the seed I'm using is crap. It's just not thick enough grass like the rest of the garden.

Participant · 16 Sep 2019 at 12:07

Andybtsn said:
Mine as of Saturday. I'm having a nightmare with the turf I laid two years ago, despite trying to overseed it there is still a lot of patches. I'm not sure if it's the soil beneath the grass or just the seed I'm using is crap. It's just not thick enough grass like the rest of the garden.

Great garden.

I would personally recommend dumping 2m^3 of sandy loam topsoil and a tonne of compost on there, along with an overseed.

Then fertilise regularly.

Andybtsn · 16 Sep 2019 at 12:08

Participant said:
Great garden.

I would personally recommend dumping 2m^3 of sandy loam topsoil and a tonne of compost on there, along with an overseed.

Then fertilise regularly.

Thanks. Just over the existing lawn? It's patchy so could put the soil in small, different areas or cover the whole part.

Participant · 16 Sep 2019 at 12:17

Andybtsn said:
Thanks. Just over the existing lawn? It's patchy so could put the soil in small, different areas or cover the whole part.

If you go whole-lawn route, over the existing lawn is fine as it'll grow back through and fill in with the new seed anyway.

If patch repairing, you may end up with thicker greener patches whereas doing the whole lawn at once it will look consistent.

Which route you go down is probably down to how much you want to spend and your inclination towards the extra work vs. spot repairs. Also how much of the lawn you want to cover in soil when you obviously have kids that will want to use the lawn.

You try try the low-effort version first (patch repair but fertilise whole lawn) then go whole lawn later if unsatisfied.

Andybtsn · 16 Sep 2019 at 12:19

Participant said:
If you go whole-lawn route, over the existing lawn is fine as it'll grow back through and fill in with the new seed anyway.

If patch repairing, you may end up with thicker greener patches whereas doing the whole lawn the same will be consistent.

Which route you go down is probably down to how much you want to spend and your inclination towards the extra work vs. spot repairs.

You try try the low-effort version first (patch repair but fertilise whole lawn) then go whole lawn later if unsatisfied.

Thanks, I was always disappointed with that side as the new turf sat a few mm below the existing grass so a small step down, putting sufficient soil and seed down will bring it up to the same level at least. Do you think it's to late to to the work now or wait until next year?

Participant · 16 Sep 2019 at 12:22

Andybtsn said:
Thanks, I was always disappointed with that side as the new turf sat a few mm below the existing grass so a small step down, putting sufficient soil and seed down will bring it up to the same level at least. Do you think it's to late to to the work now or wait until next year?

I'll be top dressing in mid October this year. Last year I did it in late November and it worked perfectly. In most of the UK you can do it in any month really. Hot and dry is worse than cold and moist.

rhysduck · 16 Sep 2019 at 12:50

Participant said:
If you go whole-lawn route, over the existing lawn is fine as it'll grow back through and fill in with the new seed anyway.

If patch repairing, you may end up with thicker greener patches whereas doing the whole lawn at once it will look consistent.

Which route you go down is probably down to how much you want to spend and your inclination towards the extra work vs. spot repairs. Also how much of the lawn you want to cover in soil when you obviously have kids that will want to use the lawn.

You try try the low-effort version first (patch repair but fertilise whole lawn) then go whole lawn later if unsatisfied.

This is the quandry i have. I have a few patches on the lawn which need sorting, so I'm debating whether to deweed and then seed the whole lawn or just do the patches? Any advice and what seed to use?

Participant · 16 Sep 2019 at 13:06

rhysduck said:
This is the quandry i have. I have a few patches on the lawn which need sorting, so I'm debating whether to deweed and then seed the whole lawn or just do the patches? Any advice and what seed to use?

Personally I wouldn't bother weeding before top dressing as soil and compost will inevitably introduce new weed seeds, despite what they might say about 'screened for weeds' etc.

I would always err on the side of doing the whole lawn, but then I want the consistent look and don't have massive lawns.

If you have 0.5 acre and very little spare time or inclination, then go with patch repair, but if you want the best most consistent result, do the whole lawn at once and even consider glyphosating the whole lot and rotavating when it's all dead (I've never bothered with this personally).

Regards seed, I use this from Amazon and it's a good balance for a general purpose lawn.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004WOSVDI?ref_=pe_3187911_248764861_302_E_DDE_dt_1

I had good germination rates with it. Most of the negative reviews are probably because people didn't keep the seeds hydrated.

Andybtsn · 16 Sep 2019 at 13:09

^^ Thanks for that. My next recommendation was which seed you would choose.

IvanDobskey · 19 Sep 2019 at 09:22

Andybtsn said:
Mine as of Saturday. I'm having a nightmare with the turf I laid two years ago, despite trying to overseed it there is still a lot of patches. I'm not sure if it's the soil beneath the grass or just the seed I'm using is crap. It's just not thick enough grass like the rest of the garden.

That's a really impressive garden. None of the houses in my area have anything like this. House we have just bought has a fraction of this space

Andybtsn · 19 Sep 2019 at 09:34

IvanDobskey said:
That's a really impressive garden. None of the houses in my area have anything like this. House we have just bought has a fraction of this space

Thank you, the joys of living in a small village out in the sticks. We couldn't get the size of the house/garden if we moved to the nearest down 10 miles away. We also have 3 football mad kids so the garden is a must!

IvanDobskey · 19 Sep 2019 at 12:48

Andybtsn said:
Thank you, the joys of living in a small village out in the sticks. We couldn't get the size of the house/garden if we moved to the nearest down 10 miles away. We also have 3 football mad kids so the garden is a must!

We are on the outskirts of a city where only the really pricey properties have much of a garden. The house we are buying has had a couple of extensions done, which of course eat into the garden space

Also the owner has built a couple of decent sized log cabin type things. May have to take one down to regain some garden.

DXP55 · 21 Sep 2019 at 16:51

My back lawn was rubbish -So in November 2018

I did this

and this

too this

then this

and this

Today we (wife and myself) seeded it - hand spread multi purpose compost on to basically cover the seed then hand rubbed more compost till is was free running then I used a sieve (like a sink bowl with mesh on bottom) to spread a fine layer of compost over the top. Any weeds you see I sprayed a few days ago with roundup and this morning early I did it again and let the sun dry it before seeding. I didn't want to pull them out in case they broke off and left roots in.

I am totally cream crackered - after our meal soon I will be out and give it a fine spray to soak it a bit but forecast for the next week is rain so I did get a move on to do it today.

By the way - the lawn was full of Chaffer grubs hence it was eaten to death - So after 8 months of no grass I hope the bloody things have starved to death.

Participant · 22 Sep 2019 at 21:04

DXP55 said:
Effort

Looks like a proper job that. Good work. Looking forward to seeing the result.

DXP55 · 22 Sep 2019 at 21:58

Believe me so am I

Being as we don't walk on lawns much I changed my mind on the seed and bought 2kg of bowling/putting green seed. I am hoping for a better lawn than front one I did last year.

Relentless81 · 23 Sep 2019 at 12:15

I really need to post mine up, wish I took pics of it when we first moved in, its still no where near finished and could do with some ideas

DXP55 · 25 Sep 2019 at 15:31

Blasted rain we had has washed a lot of the seed off - Just had to recover with sieved compost :rolleyes:

Murf · 30 Sep 2019 at 15:15

DXP55 said:
Believe me so am I

Being as we don't walk on lawns much I changed my mind on the seed and bought 2kg of bowling/putting green seed. I am hoping for a better lawn than front one I did last year.

How is it progressing?

psd99 · 1 Oct 2019 at 10:48

it is difficult to get the lawn in order now, as it is just so wet out there.

yet to collect the moss or anything else. doubt i can do it now