starting the long road to green green grass ....

Hi folks,

after putting off and putting off for a long time, ive decided i need to do something to reclaim the lovely grass back on the front and back gardens. after buying the house we are in 6 years ago, we have not bothered doing anything except cut the grass every now and then ... and so sadly weeds have overtaken the place. little genuine grass now remains, instead it is filled with moss (in parts), dandelions, plantains, clover ... and a handful of other weeds im not sure of the name of (small blue flowered ones and small purple flowered ones).

we also have a gravel border around the back garden, of which lots of horsetail pops through ... that stuff is a total nightmare!

ill get some pictures done when i get home so i can get better advice on where to start. the problem is so big i dont even know where to start and especially with it being late spring/early summer. we also have a sorbus growing in the one corner of the back garden.

as said ill follow up with some pics later but any ideas on where to start? we also have a cat so would be worried about using chemical weedkillers, and i dont mind a bit of hard manual graft to rid them, as long as i know what to do.

help!

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner jujhimup. I've always used chemical weedkillers on my lawn and it never seemed to be an issue with my dog. I think most animals are aware of what it is and will avoid it when they pick up the smell. The only thing I would suggest is not to let pet rabbits or any grazing animals near it for a while.

I use a weed/feed/moss killer in granular form during a period of rain. If you use a liquid form, that has to be put down in a dry spell. At the moment because of the wet spring we've had, it's not to late to do this now. In fact I'll be putting mine down tomorrow.

Horsetail you will not be able to get rid of by digging out as any root that's left in will re-grow. Glyphosate (Roundup) is probably the only thing that will kill it and will possibly take more than one attempt. Don't spray on a breezy day, if it drifts it will kill anything else it touches.

Pictures are always welcome on GC as they help to see the problems you have and suggestions can be given to sort them out.

 

Hi,

thanks for the welcome and reply.

what is the granular one you use out of interest? we actually do have a rabbit also so that doesnt help. ive attached some pics, these were taken around 6.30pm last night so gives an indication to the sunlight the garden gets and the face.

ive took some close ups of the grass, you will see some moss in the one of them (which is in the permanently shaded area close to the back fence) and the other, there really isnt much actual grass its just flat leaf weeds everywhere.

In the top left corner of the garden, we would like to have a cammelia there (where the slabs are and darker part of fence), and maybe some lower lying shrubs around it. the tree is a sorbus we planted in the ground last summer, and its grown quite well.

any suggestions on how to improve things would be great

EDIT: hmm ok i get an error trying to upload pics, so see these links:

main overview (sun rises from the top left):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ntksxlvabwmtcod/IMAG0040.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6tz9yoeb3tukmpi/IMAG0041.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/w6v2sdg5v10ky4c/IMAG0042.jpg

side path (the gravel area behind the choisya is owned by the council):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/qd1vb0hu7yag0jw/IMAG0043.jpg

patio area:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/tha1igf7ozmgdqf/IMAG0045.jpg

close up of lawn:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/5baip70utulsk1s/IMAG0046.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/vvfxfeieqotqy2c/IMAG0047.jpg

 

For the last two years I've used B & Q's home brand weed/feed/mosskiller with good results. I think I've used one produced by Evergreen before now too, but obviously it will be slightly dearer. The packaging should tell you how long it will be before it's safe for your rabbit to graze again.

If the rabbit is in a hutch and run on the ground, could you not move it on to the raised bed until it's safe to put it back on the lawn?

Your garden looks sheltered on all sides and with soil type in mind you should be able to grow pretty much what you want. I don't see why the Camellia shouldn't go in that corner. Be aware though they don't like to be East facing as it damages the flowers and if you get frost in that part of the garden in the morning that will also damage them.

I like how you've trained the Syringa (Lilac) up through the trellis, but I'm surprised the branches haven't broken the trellis as they've grown.

Climbers up the fences would take some of the bareness off.

 

hi there,

well ive had an interesting couple of weeks. the first thing is that i think i managed to kill one of the roses :( more or less all of the leaves have completely come off and its looking incredibly bare, with dark spots on the leaves and some of them yellow ... this must have occured from applying weedkiller on the gravel which must have carried in the wind. is there anything i can do to recover it?

second, i applied some westland feed, weed and mosskiller - granules, i applied these to the back lawn last night. the granules didnt seem to cover too much following the instructions so it will be interesting to see what happens with it. i think we are expecting a small shower or two maybe today but if not ill go over it with a watering can maybe thursday.

my second worry is with the tree we planted, directly in the ground ... i am now panicking that the feed/weed/mosskiller will kill the tree too? :(

heres the tree: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ntksxlvabwmtcod/IMAG0040.jpg

 

I doubt you'll have much luck with Glyphosate - unless you bash it sufficient to bruise it (back of spade for example) first. Ammonium sulphamate is more effective IME, sold by Dax.

 

Hi,

ok an update. ill get some photos done later but its now been 10 days since i put the lawn feed/weed and mosskiller down. more or less all moss has blackened (not all of it though, so am waiting a few more days). it stayed dry for 3 days then we had some decent rain which i was hoping for. due to that rain i couldnt cut the lawn so it looked pretty funny during that time ... weeds all grew like wildfire.

i cut it 3 days ago and its looking much much better.

with regards to the rose i now see it has 'black spot' so ill go about trying to reduce that and hopefully rid of it with some persistence.

with the tree planting position - possibly yes but we put it there because we know the tree will spread a good metre or two to the side, so we wanted to cover as much fence behind that as possible.

when i rake out the dead moss, what do i need to replace the holes with and which seed?

EDIT: scarification - from what ive read and can see its not advisable to do that this time of year? am i safe enough to give it a 'light' raking, remove the dead moss and overseed and top soil those dead/bare patches?

 

When the dead moss is raked out give it a couple of weeks for grass re-growth, if it doesn't start to appear then you'll have to re-seed these areas.

I scarified my back lawn three days ago. It is not a problem at the moment as the weather is not good. But it's not a good idea to do this work on lawns in the summer months when it is generally dry.

 

I was just going to ask the question about this horsetail weed. Luckily I saw it here.

Nightmare as others have said and will try this stuff. Thanks Kristen.

Fortunately it`s only in the chips surrounding my back lawn but I guess will get to the grass soon enough.