"Stuff" in my lawn + general questions

Hello all

I would appreciate some advice on my lawn. It was laid as turf about 8 months or so ago. It has taken well and looks pretty good, but I have some questions as follows:

As we are getting onto summer, I have started to notice some "stuff" growing in the lawn - excuse the technical term "stuff". Here are some pics:

This is it growing in the lawn:



And I plucked some out, to give a better view:



and:





My initial reaction was that it was some weed / undesirable growing in the lawn, but my dad reckoned it might be something (rye?) mixed deliberately with the grass to make it more robust.

It was not very noticeable at first, but now seems to be doing very well - even better than the grass perhaps! - and is now quite noticeable to the eye.

Any advice gratefully received!

I would appreciate any general lawn tips to keep it in decent shape.

We have heavy clay soil and so drainage will not be brilliant - so i expect moss will rear its head, especially as Scotland is so very wet.

The garden slopes down towards the back fence, meaning the border with the neighbours is lower - and can be squelchy after prolonged heavy rain etc. The grass down there seems greener / lusher than elsewhere.

I have been advised to put grass food / weedkiller down and then scarify / aerate the lawn. I have some of this stuff below, but figured Id ask on here first, before applying it, as I was getting carried away without really knowing what I was doing (!).

(to be honest, the "stuff" above made me think I had an infestation of weeds, which must be destroyed at all costs, and so I nearly gave in to a knee jerk reaction).



Is this - (food/weedkiller and scarifying / aerating) - advisable for a lawn on the type of soil we have and if so how often should I carry out this maintenance work? Or if this is inappropriate, what is best?

Thanks for reading!

 

The pictures are helpful Gabriel but can I ask for another one of the whole lawn if possible please, it will give me a complete picture of how well the lawn is growing.

 

Thanks for posting sheal - and no problem, I will get a photo(s) as you request - hopefully tomorrow eve!

 

I just had a thought - there are some pics of the wider lawn in the thread linked in my signature.

However, i will still seek to get an up-to-date one tomorrow, as the ones in the linked thread are about 3-4 weeks old.

 

Looks like Annual meadow grass, which will be a grass seed that has been sown for the turf, grass seed are a mix of many different grass seeds and there is many differents mix's

Two pic's of grass seed when gone to see, grass will go the seed naturly or if it is stressed

 

As Jiffy has said above most turf has a mixture of seed in it some of which are hardier and wear better than others. The only way you will get one particular type of seed is to sow your own lawn. The seed heads you can see usually appear when the grass is slightly longer than usual but won't do any harm.

Looking at your lawn pics I really can't see anything wrong with it at this point. If there are no weeds or moss then I would use a straight forward feed and put the 4 in 1 away for next year. I don't usually recommend any chemicals in a lawns first year as they are normally weed free and nutrients are gained from the soil which sustains normal growth. There is also the possibility of forcing the grass to outgrow it's strength. However, yours has been down eight months and autumn feeding is not ideal so yes, make your choice between 4 in 1 or a straight feed now and treat it. Because the lawn is so young I wouldn't feed it again this year and don't be tempted to put more down than the instructions say, you could burn the lawn. You can use any type of lawn treatments on any soil or lawn.

The above is fine. In the area you say is squelchy, brush some sharp sand into the holes when you have aerated, it will help drainage.

 

Thanks a lot Jiffy, v helpful indeed!

 

Thanks for the great advice sheal.

If you think it looks OK, maybe I was paranoid - it was often squelchy during winter and so I thought it a dead cert we'd soon have problems! But I am glad to be wrong!

To be fair to it, it has dried out much better than I anticipated.

Some extra pics:; you can see the meadow grass "stuff" as a hint of purple (some areas seem to have noticeably more than others)



Some sections look a bit uneven, but not too bad I think:

 

Yes I can see it now, if it bothers you too much you could dig out those areas and re-turf or lay grass seed, but the grass seed would be a different type and possibly wouldn't blend in.

I can't see any weeds or moss in the lawn but if you have patches then you could treat those with a separate weed and moss killer, then go over the whole lawn with a feed.