The lawn thread

[chipperhead]

Thought I'd start a lawn thread for folks to post their progress, advice, questions, answers, pictures etc.

Now is a good time of year to start thinking about lawn maintenance with the warmer spring weather just around the corner.
Firstly have a good tidy getting rid of all the leaves and winter debris, you can give it a cut but do it on a dry day and make it a high cut and never take more than a 1/3 off the total length.

I really neglected mine last year but I plan to bring it back to it's former glory, this is how it looked after a good tidy and cut.
As you can see the moss has really taken hold this winter.

I used an electric lawn rake yesterday and today applied Iron Sulphate, this picture was taken straight after applying the iron, I'll post another in a couple of days to see the effects and the darkening of the grass.

Today I've ordered seed, top dressing, spring/summer and autumn winter fertilizer.
I also managed to get a cheap scarifier over the winter months so in a few weeks when the grass is actively growing I'm going to fertilize with low nitrogen, then scarify it quite aggressively followed by top dressing and finally overseed.

I'll update with pictures as I progress.

 

[chipperhead]

SDK^, you wasn't exaggerating when you said it was 90% moss, you had nothing left after scarifying.

 

[chipperhead]

Watching this thread with interest. This is our front lawn, it's pretty much 100% moss and a nightmare.

I really want to tackle it, but stories of it taking a week of hard labour are sort of putting me off .

It's not level either, as the previous idiots "removed a flower bed" by simply digging out the plants and chucking grass seed in it.

It's really not hard labour at all to get rid of moss, you need something with Iron Sulphate in so lawn sand or a fertilizer with Fe on the label.
After this, ideally follow it up with some seed to fill in were the moss was and thicken the density of grass up. Otherwise you can be left with big gaps for weeds to grow into.

Levelling can be a bit more hardwork, if it's only an inch or 2 you can gradually add more soil into the surface of the lawn to work the levels up, this is called topdressing but must be done gradually and not covering the full height of the leaf.
Alternatively, you're looking at slicing the turf and lifting or peeling then adding soil underneath then replacing, this can get labour intensive and time consuming.

 

[chipperhead]

is it worth trying to scarify before putting moss killer down? Is it too early to do the latter?

There's 2 schools of thought on this scarify then moss killer or the other way round.
Some say scarifying first can spread the moss spores to the rest of the garden so apply a moss killer first then after a couple of weeks scarify.

To be honest I've tried both ways and they are both very effective.

Ideally it's maybe still a few weeks a bit too early, I suppose it depends whereabouts in the UK you live as well as obviously this can have a huge difference in temperatures.

This is how mines looking now, scarifying got rid of most of the moss and thatch and the Iron finished the rest off but it's looking very thin.
It'll soon thicken up though with a bit of work.

 

[chipperhead]

Forgot to add - might be putting the house on sale this year, so can't really afford to wait for seed to grow in.

If you plan on selling and have dogs I'd probably just returf aswell, it'll give it that instant look of a quality lawn.
Quite a bit of work involved though getting the lawn ready for turfing.

 

[chipperhead]

I need to put some seed down on the bottom half of my garden, am I just best going to diy store and buying a box of seed, any recommendations to the kind I should get?

Thanks

If it's for the bottom half of your garden, is it shady? As you can get different mixes for different purposes.
Also decide if you want it with ryegrass for a more hard wearing lawn or not.

 

[chipperhead]

They're called leatherjackets, you can get treatment to kill them.

 

[chipperhead]

Managed to try out my new scarifier yesterday.
3 settings of severity to chose from, I obviously went for the most severe.

 

[chipperhead]

Hey Chipperhead, can you use any sharp sand to mix in with heavy clay soil? (i.e. from a builders merchant)

Yeah I did, don't use it as a top dressing though, it's not screened finely enough, but to add to the soil then seed or turf is ok.

Looking good!, Are you going to overseed? I did mine a few weeks back and was amazed how much thatch and moss was pulled out, so much so that the moss areas were almost back to soil.

I'm going to top dress first then over seed.

 

[chipperhead]

How much do you reckon it would cost to have a pro sort all this lot?



Trying to weigh it up against organising all the kit (scarifier, hollow tine aerator, fertiliser sprayer, soil and sand delivery, etc.) and doing it myself.

I wouldn't have a clue about cost but all you need is a product with iron (fe) in to kill the moss and a half moon edger and spade to lift the turf and fill with soil.
A lawn weedkiller like Verdone to kill the ground elder and some seed fill the patches.
Probably a good days work.

I have some lawn "feed&weed", I'm just a little apprehensive about using it and killing all the grass.there is detail information about what weeds it kills and what grass it is good for - but I have no idea what kind of grass I have.

It doesn't matter what type of grass you have, just apply at the correct rate.

 

[chipperhead]

So an update from me, from post 2 http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=26068509&postcount=2

I planted some grass seed on March 27th and have been watering it everyday since.
Today it had it's first cut; there are a few weeds to clear but it's coming along nicely - No more moss !!!

Nice results!

 

[chipperhead]

My back lawn is quite extensive 1/3rd acre) and is in a fairly poor state. Lots of weeds and lots of bald spots. The problem is it used to be a forest and still has a dozen large trees and I don't know what was done to get the grass there but lots of the standard forest under foliage remains. I have removed most of the dandelions but wild strawberries, crab grass and a million different other weeds cover large areas.

Last week I put down a little weed and feed but not sure it will make a big difference given the magnitude of the weed infestation. Probably the best solution is to pay for so,done to return large areas but that is out of budget given the size.

I don't need the lawn to be perfect but would like an improvement. How would I go about doing this? Thinking regular cutting would help but this seems to stimulate the weeds more than the grass. I'm worried too much weed killer will leave the lawn too brown.

Similar to the above in that I have a fairly large lawn but doesn't sound quite as bad but would be interested to know where anyone recommends to buy the products from as Im sure there will be a cheaper alternate to the garden centre.

If it was me I'd buy a knapsack sprayer from ebay for about £18 and a selective weedkiller, something like verdone (make sure you get the stuff to dilute not the one in a spray bottle.
If it leaves lots of gaps in the lawn chuck some seed down.

Regular mowing definitely helps to keep it looking good.

I generally use pitchcare.com when buying my products but p&p can be quite a bit, you can probably buy most things from ebay.

 

[chipperhead]

Looks like you're in for a fun weekend, you should see some fantastic results with that lot.
Keep us updated

 

[chipperhead]

What do I need to do in order to fix this mess...

I just want a nice lawn!! Please help

Regular cutting would be the biggest help, it looks like you let it get really long then try and mow it down.
Set your mower at the highest level and cut it regularly then gradually start to reduce it to your desired height.
You should never remove more than a third the height of grass when mowing.

 

[chipperhead]

Had the lawn re-laid on Monday, including the builders sorting out the drainage, there was a lot of topsoil put down!

it's looking

how long would people recommend before I can mow it?

You're going to have to leave it until the turf starts knitting in with the soil below otherwise it'll probably just rip it up or suck it into the mower depending on type.
Keep watering it really well and a rough guess I'd say a couple of weeks.

 

[chipperhead]

I still need to top dress mine and a few other things but the kids Guinea Pigs make a lovely square were the run has been.
Also despite trying to get the dog to wee in the yard she has still made a mess of the grass in a few places. I need to look into getting the stuff you put into their water bowl.

 

[chipperhead]

My lawn has grown well, still some way to go to reach the quality of Chipperheads above.

My focus now is on weed control as they are starting to take over. Going to weed and feed and pull out all of the dandelions over the next few weeks.

Don't pull the dandelions out unless you can guarantee to get all the roots.
Use the weed and feed and let the chemicals do the work.

 

[chipperhead]

Question
The lawn rake I got can also do scarifying, should I do this now or wait till it recovers then attack it again. I can always leave it till next year if it should be done at the start of the season?

When you say scarifying is it spinning solid metal blades or springy metal tines?

Following on from post 65, this is what I've got at the moment...


What are you guys using? Verdone? Resolva?

Then I've got a few bits to clear and reseed after the summer.

I use Verdone.

 

[chipperhead]

I have both, the tines were used to do the raking. It also has an attachment of the solid blades, they look like they will do some damage, but guess thats what they are meant to do. They are straight so should just leave some narrow lines down the grass.

At this time of year the grass is under enough stress with the heat and lack of rain for solid blades.
Its best to leave it till September for the next round of lawn maintenance such as this and top dressing etc.

 

[chipperhead]

I've put some Verdone down today, how long will it take to work?

Also, how long should I wait before seeding? I don't intend to do it until the cooler wetter weather hits at the end of summer anyway, but will I be ok in about a months time?

Yeah, a month sounds about right.
It'll give the weedkiller time to work and early September is a good time to seed.