New to gardening, think my lawns infested.....?

Hi all, Im pretty new to gardening in the fact that Ive never had anything other than a little bit of grass before.

In my new house im looking to coninue landscaping the garden this year as well as some paving decking etc.

Last year in the autumn I rotovated the very poor excuse of a garden, removed as much of the old grass as i could see.

i rolled the soil, planted seeds, and at one point the lawn looked amazing!!

this year it looks a bit worse for wear, and im hoping i can get it sorted early on, but I have no knowledge of weeds / plants etc, and I need some help identifying some that are suffocating my lawn.

I was going to cut the grass today, but remember reading that cutting some weeds can spread them more, so hoping for some tips before i touch it.

Please be aware that I now own a dog, so any chemical treatments that are harmful to them I would need to be aware first so that I can keep the dog out of the garden for the required period.

Ill post some links for you to look at, and I hope somebody here with better knowledge than myself (that shouldnt be hard) can help prevent me from making things worse.

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last year after seeding..(the odd patches are where trees or other things will be going)








weeds


Many Thanks

Rob

 

Thanks for the quick response..

Ill look up red dead nettle and see if i can find more similar pics..

its such a shame, i put in what i thought was a lot of time and effort, and didnt rush to do things, but clearly something went wrong..

I just dont want to have to rotivate and start over again!!

 

forgot to ask, is it safe to cut it today, or best to treat it first?

 

You may get away with just mowing the lawn a few times then see what you're left with. Judging from your photo above a mow on a medium height is going to remove more than %50-%60 of the red dead nettle. The plants in their butchered state will then have to use their energy reserves to regrow, at which point (maybe a week) you rake the lawn so the nettle stands proud of the grass and cut again. You can then gauge how bad the remaining problem is and treat as necessary. If the nettle remains after a couple of cuts you can either remove by hand or treat with a variety of products, Verdone and Vitax spring to mind.

Hope that helps.

 

yes thats a great help, thank you!

 

read this link:
http://www.scottslawnservice.com/sl...aryNodeId=5000002&pageUrl=slspurpledeadnettle

snip:
Although a thick, healthy turf will reduce competition from Purple Deadnettle in your lawn, it can’t be completely removed using simple cultural weed control methods. Professionally applied herbicides are the best way to ensure the weed is completed eradicated.

it may be worth your while to contact Green Thumb and let them quote to use a suitable weedkiller ....

http://www.greenthumb.co.uk/

fill in the details on the left hand side and a rep will contact you to make an appointment .... they are not expensive

 

closest one that I find in the book called 'The Lawn expert' is called Slender Speedwell

according to the book, you need a weedkiller that contains ioxynil as well as dicamba or mecoprop .... it also says that the lawn should be treated before the flowers form

 

Just keep mowing it throughout the summer.
You will be amazed what regular mowing can do.

Marley Farley is correct with id. It is Lamium. Probably Lamium purpureum.


http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=lamium+purpureum&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&biw=1280&bih=647&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=OtFtT6mCAouU8gP70OnNCg

Veronica filiformis or Slender speedwell is very different.


https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Veronica filiformis&rls=com.microsoft:en-US&oe=utf8&redir_esc=&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=9NFtT93uBJP68QPg4ty-DQ&biw=1205&bih=580&sei=99FtT82QF9O38gPI_dSMDw

 

Be very careful about any advise in a book on how to treat weeds.
The laws are changing so very fast about garden chemicals that the chances are a book is out of date before it hits the bookshops.
Many previously used chemicals available to gardeners are not BANNED.

http://www.rhs.org.uk/Gardening/Advice/Garden-chemicals-and-pesticides/Chemicals

 

I just go along with regular mowing.
If any weeds still remain after a few weeks, apply weed and feed.

 

I agree that you need to be very careful when applying any chemical in the garden. My advice would be mow the lawn at least once a week starting with quite a high cut then gradually over the next few weeks lower the cut but not low enough to scalp the lawn but enough to give you about 3/4 inch of grass. This will have such a detrimental effect on the weeds that it just won't survive as Axl suggested above.

 

Oh it is good to know they are no longer banned.
I will get my sprayer out

Jack McH