Lawn is this years challenge

Hi all,

I'm wanting to whip my lawn into shape this year. So far i have given it it's first cut after winter, then gave it it's second cut last night whilst lowering the blade.

I then worked the rake through it to remove a load of moss and thatch

I'm wanting to give it a good feed next to green it up a little. I'm thinking of using liquid seaweed.

Once i have done this i will be applying verdone weed killer within a few weeks.

How soon can i apply the liquid seaweed after cutting?

 

straight away , it will green up in days ,..

 

Awesome! Cheers spruce. I'll get straight on it

 

Right, just applied the liquid seaweed. I'll post an 'after' pic on Monday. (I'm away this weekend). This is the lawn as it looked after it's second cut..

 

This is after I ran the rake over/through it...

 

Craig , this thread below on lawns may be useful . Post number 7 from @fa1con , has a very good lawn feed procedure . I have just completed this on the front lawn and nearly finished the back lawn . The are looking really really good The use of dilute ferrous sulphate as a moss kill , fertiliser , green up solution has been really effective . I now just need to reseed a couple off dead moss patches.
Note on Iron sulphate as a mosskiller you really need the 30% Fe stuff , as link below . The packs you buy in garden centres only seem to be around 10% Fe , for use as a general fertiliser. I could only find the stronger stuff on Ebay..

http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/threads/scarifying-lawns.93229/
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/IRON-SULP...t=LH_DefaultDomain_3&var=&hash=item27f9ddaf60

 

Nice one, thanks a lot for that link Harry!

Just gave my lawn a third cut and its second feed of liquid seaweed. I'll get some of that iron sulphate off of eBay. Noticed I'll be needing a general fertiliser as per the post by fa1con. Think I'll get one of those lawn fertiliser spreaders

 

I have one of the spreaders and only works with certain products other wise it gets stuck and nothing comes out or it comes out in heaps and kills the grass

 

Right, thanks for the tip Spruce! So if I buy an Evergreen spreader its best to only use Evergreen fertiliser. Is it easier to spread the fertiliser by hand? I only have a small lawn anyway

 

you hit the nail on the head with the spreader !!

measure out a square out of bamboo then work out whats what for a square meter and they just move it around the lawn , dont add more like we have all done and end up killing the grass

 

cheers spruce!

whats everyone's preferred brand of fertiliser?

I'm going to order some iron sulphate from ebay in Harry's link

 

After the Iron sulphate feed , moss kill and green up ( make sure you get the strength right - see below ) I used to use Evergreen feed and weed for the first feed . Can't find this now , so I used Vitax this year - seems OK

Applying Iron Sulphate as a moss kill
Watering 9 litres can = 12 sq m
Sulphate of iron as a moss kill = 4 to 5gm / sq m
Dosage per watering can 45-55 gm

You will need to roughly measure the full capacity of your watering can. Then swinging it side to side and watering the lawn , swing is about 3 metres and I slow walk forward about 4 metres before the can is empty. So if you can work out how much lawn you can water with your full watering can you can work out the weight of Iron to put in each dose . You are aiming to put about 5gms of sulphate on every square metre. Sounds complicated but once you get going you fly along - try it on a small area first !

 

This is @fa1con lawn conditioning process . I have numbered each step so I know where I am up too ! I have completed my front lawn ,and its looking very nice I am onto step 5 this weekend with my back lawn, final feed and then mow next week . I'll feed once more late summer.
I am not a lawn fanatic mowing every other day and strimming to midnight ( you know the sort ! ) I just want a niceish looking lawn , which I mow when I have too !

1-Before scarifying, spray some ferrous sulphate
2- About 2 weeks after scarify Make sure you go both ways with the scarifyer and overlap half each stripe.
3-The same day or day after, preferably when it rains feed your lawn with a fertiliser. Dont mow it for a week to let the feed work and then keep a tight cut on it for the first cut.
4-Again spray the lawn with the ferrous sulphate
5- After another week feed your lawn again with the fertiliser and leave 1 week to mow. Within 4 weeks your lawn will look green and full.