Lawn from seed ?!?!

Hello all.

I have a strange issue that i have never come across before.

To explain the situation.

3 years i moved into a new house and both the back lawns was in a bad state. Lots of bogging and huge amounts of weed and moss. I started from removing some trees high bushes and asking my one neighbour if i could remove some of his trees to get more sunlight into my garden :-) . He is very old and his garden has 7ft tall stingers .

I then skimmed the whole lawn over to remove everything for a fresh start. and seeded the whole area. Year 1 the grass was pretty thin. but after another 2 years of keeping the lawn fed with organic feed moss free and weed free the lawn is now thick lush green lawn .

So this now moves onto my main point. My mom wanted her lawn the same . I went around to take a close look. the one lawn was not to back just a fair amount of thatch. the other lawn was almost 90%moss.

I put some 4in1 moss killer down. then removed alot of bushes and trees to get more light into the area to reduce dampness. When i came to remove the moss a few weeks latter with my scarifier I took a huge amount of moss out like you would not even be-leave. She decided to leave the 2nd lawn untill the 1st one wa finished so she could see the diff.

After all the moss was gone i racked the area applied some organic feed like i did with mine. applied 20% more seed then needed like i did. then covered the seed with good soil and then compacted and told her to keep her eye on it and if it gets very dry hose it on a mist setting.

3week later i went back to give the grass its 1st cut. and nothing. not one single seed has grown. i did my 2nd lawn at the same time and i have cut mine twice since i did hers. its now been 7 weeks and still she has no grass.

i cant understand this. ????

Has anyone got any idea to why this may of happened ?

I used 2 boxes of seed so i doubt it was a bad batch of seed

any ideas to why this has happened would be great thanks e

 

Not an easy one this Corpy. First it could just be a seed failure. Second new laid seed should be watered every day unless it rains.

Did you dig the surface over before you sowed the seed, that would aerate the soil and promote growth.

I too have a lawn full of moss and it tends to grow in damp compacted areas of soil. Unfortunately mine is beyond redeeming as it's totally choked with moss and the lawn is 60 x 50ft. Looks like I'll be replacing it next year. I'll be starting with a rotovator I think!

The only other thing I can suggest is try seeding again, a small area just to see if the seed germinates. If it does keep it watered and see what happens. If it gets under way, then move on to the rest of the lawn.

 

yeh it is a rather odd situation. im going to take a look on sunday to see if anything has changed. And i racked the surface 1st to loosen it up a bit then just used a fork to put holes in and lift a bit. i did not want to dig it all over and level it :-).

Ill post a update after sunday

 

It could be the water, or perhaps not leaving the lawn the required six months between application of the 4in1 and applying seed was the reason?

Sadly whatever the reason, you will probably be best off leaving it a while before trying again. :(

 

Hi Corpy

Had it rained , or your mum never watered it enough

I have just re-seeded I kept the back well watered and didt realy bother with the front , back is now lush and the front because of all the rain we have had is now growing

Spruce

 

You DO NOT cover lawn seed, you gently rake it into the top inch of soil. Keep moist but not overly wet, and you certainly DON`T cut it 3 weeks after sowing. May I ask whereabouts you live? Just as a matter of interest.

 

Dai, who is far more knowledgeable than me, said exactly what I was about to say. Except I'll add this:

Even in the right conditions, 3 weeks is too soon to decide whether its a success or failure. When I sowed my new lawn (granted a bit too early), it was about 6 weeks before anything happened. I seeded another patch about 3 weeks ago and its coming through nicely now, but still no way ready for me to even consider cutting it. Any attempt to cut it would surely just rip the immature roots straight out the soil and even if that didn't happen, I think the trauma would be just too much before the roots are down.

 

Exactly.

 

I just follow what i have always done. when i have seeded my lawn before and then covered the seed with a light layer and then watered in with in 5-7 days the grass is through and with in 12-14 days the grass is about 8-12 cm tall. and then i just keep it well cut. my lawn is cut 2-3 times a week and kept at about 1-1.5inch in length and this year i have had no moss or weeds

ive done a few lawns now and i have never known any to take longer then 2 weeks. if i left mine any longer that say 3-6weeks the grass would of been a 1ft long and the lawnmower does not go high enough to cut only 1/3 lol

i have re-done all the lawn now and took the top 2 inchs of soil out and filled and firmed with a good quality top soil and fed it and water then applied seed the next day and covered again with a very very light dusting of soil and water in so i will update you in 5-6 days . the new seed is a fast growing hard wearing. says 4-5 days

when its done in 2 weeks ill upload and before and after picture

 

Well, if you are right that`s all my expensive training down the Swanee.

 

Can i just ask what lawn seed you are using?
cheers.
greenthumbs