2016 lawn strategy?

Hi folks,

Back again for the new gardening season

Last year we bought our first home and the first job was to start sorting out the lawn. It was a terrible moss infested lawn. I read a lot on here and got to work. I heavily scarified it twice last year, removing around 30 bin bags of moss! Some bits were so bad I actually dug large chunks out and reseeded. Since then I aerated it, top dressed and over seeded.

I gave the lawn its second cut of the year a day or two ago, a high cut just to encourage growing and to tidy it up.

Here are some photos of current status.

Some yellowish and dry looking parts, bare patches and a few areas that need an expert eye.

What should I be looking to achieve this year? The lawn is a little bumpy and uneven when you actually walk on it, but its a lot better than last year I feel.

 

Hi Zola, it's looks ok to me! I cut mine the other day and got some yellowing but I think that just because the grass was quite long in parts and we had a frost 2 days after.. maybe put some feed down and when it warms up a bit more, seed over the patches and keep the mower on a high cut for now

 

@Sheal, have you any thoughts about the condition?

It still is a little spongy in places, and when I pull back some of the grass maybe there is moss underneath the grass trying to compete, but I am not sure.

Would starting from scratch be a bit drastic?

 

Welcome back Zola.

Lawns do tend to be a little uneven now as very few people use the older style cylinder mowers. You could hire a roller that would help the situation.

The yellowing on the lawn suggests that there is still moss/thatching in the lawn, perhaps it would be an idea to scarify again. I would leave it a few more weeks for the temperature to rise and then aerate the bare patches with a fork and re-seed those. Again if you want to feed the lawn I'd leave that a few weeks too as the grass is only just starting to actively grow.

If the bare patches appear again in the same areas then we'll have to think about what else is going on there.

Definitely! Your lawn is in much better condition now than it was and it shouldn't take to much to put it right. We've just come out of a warm, wet winter and moss has run riot. My larger front lawn is smothered and I have moss in the back lawn for the first time, so both will need a lot of work this year.

 

Thanks as always @Sheal!

I have a roller but I have never used it out of the fear of compacting the soil etc haha. Its not an old fashioned iron one, but a steel drum one you can add water or sand to.

I will do a light scarify in a months time or so, thanks for the advice.

The bare patches I have shown are large areas that I cut out, re-soiled and seeded, as they were so moss ridden. Maybe I didn't add enough grass seed.

 

I would agree entirely with what Sheal wrote, apart from one thing. My own personal preference would be to use a lute to level out the lawn, rather than a roller. Not only do I find lutes easier to use, but also useable in the future for adding dressing, and so on.

In my world, they are easy enough to make, but they can be bought.

 

Thanks for your reply, I would love a lute, but they are so expensive!

How did you make it?

 

I found a photo online, and simply welded a copy using angle iron. The chances are, if you cannot weld, it may be possible to get one made by someone who can as a "foreigner."

I have seen them online from about £50 upwards, which for what they are is expensive.

 

I'd buy one at £50, most I have seen are more than £100 !

 

The one I saw for £50 was here: (hope I'm not breaking any rules posting this)

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/law...-99-delivered-ebay-pik_trailer_spares-1533172

I see it has ended, but maybe they have more?

 

Never heard of a lawn lute before , does it level the lawn ? They are very expensive after a quick google .
Zola your lawn looks good don't think of a returf !

 

Good lutes serve several jobs, one to work in soil or dressing and the other is the ability to cut out high areas which is why most good lutes have 2 surfaces. As they are more for commercial use this pushes up prices sadly.
Yellowing is a issue with nutrients if not in a cut state and is not a sign of thatch. You want thatch in your lawn but you don't want too much. Depending on the machine used and the thatch type will dictate what amount you remove. I would say most domestic machines are not very successful in its removal and tend to rip the lawn rather than slice and lift. Only a core sample will show thatch levels and to be honest there's some good lawns that meet a standard that are never scarified but if you want that bit better then there's a whole lot more scarifying does in terms of turf management.
At this time of year you will notice in many lawns an uneven growth pattern and that is due to a lawn that contains several different types of grass.
Many will say you need a temp of around 10 to 12 degrees for grass to grow, this is an average as different grass types grow at different temps. Some types can show growth at 5 degrees while others need a higher temp, you also have different rates of growth.
Iron is your friend for moss and to harden the turf up. Not too much as to alter the soil levels but enough to deter moss growth , harden the turf and to keep the lawn in fairly good order.
I would be wary of using a heavy roller, fine on cricket greens with a clay make up but on a wet, domestic lawn you will compact the soil with too much weight and end up making lumps and bumps more pronounced, I've seen this a fair few times on newish lawns.
If it's pretty uneven dressing will take a while as you will have to dress several times before you start to see an improvement if you want a nice flat lawn.

 

Thanks all for your helpful replies.

 

April's work summarised so far

• I dug out the really yellow patch at the start of April and added in a little bit of top soil and a small cut of fresh turf from Homebase.
• Added Evergreen Mosskil in granular form a couple of weeks later through my new drop spreader
• Gave the lawn a small cut on Saturday.

The patch seems to have taken well (I wish the rest of the lawn was as green as it!!)

You cant really tell from the photo up here, but there are some small bare patches throughout when you are standing over and looking directly down, but the lawn is beginning to feel much less spongy.




What to do now?
@Sheal @Liz the pot

Would a lighter scarifying be a bit unnecessary at this stage?

I was considering hiring a machine aerator for a day with a friend from work to really open up the lawn and then maybe brush in some sharp sand and overseed ?

 

On very fine lawns or lawns that want to be in a fairly good condition you would normally scarify Autumn and Spring. Here's the thing though, lawns that are feed through the summer will have a greater degree of thatch and depending on grass type depends on the thatch present.
Would I brush in sand only if I aerated, no as sand has negative sides to it as well as positive and I would try to match a higher content soil with a sand mix. Will it help, yes but will it deal with a moss build up, I'm afraid that problem may well return.
It's hard to say what needs doing but if you have a fair bit of moss then scarifying with the blades set to touch the soil surface will remove a fair bit of the moss depending on the machine setup.
Would I dress and seed, to be honest it's early still and it seems from the photo not too bad. Most of the seeding I've seen is through being heavy handed with maintanence. I've seen a fair few lawns striped badly by scarifying using the machine incorrectly.
Personally I think those small patches will fill in as the temps rise and the grass develops.