Help with my inherited Lawn

Hello all newbie here hope you can help :-)

I have recently moved home and aquired a lawn which is in need of some TLC. The lawn at start of August when we moved in had a lot of dandelion,moss and clover and is somewhat uneaven with hollows.

I applied Westland Lawn feed weed and mosskiller about 3 weeks ago which done a good job on the moss and greening up the lawn but had little to no effect on the dandelion and clover. Since then I have spot weeded the daldelion with Glyphosate which has removed the dandelion (and surrounding grass :-) effectivly. A rake yesturday and the clover seems to have lessended a bit too.

I have also purchased some Verdone extra and a specific lawn spot weedkiller (Wilco own brand) and some seed.

So my plan is to Verdone extra, areate, top dress and seed. Could any of you kind souls help me with the order please.

My concern if I apply Verdone and I carry out other treatments including seeding will the Verdone hamper the seed from germinating?

How long do i need to leve the verdone before reseeding and top dressing ?

Have I got enough time to do all treatments I propose or will I miss the Autumn boat.

Is normal sharp sand (contains small hard bits) mixed with peat and top soil ok for top dressing and is there a economical mixture i can use to top dress - grow bags or compost instead of top soil ?

Sorry for long post. I will try and upload some photo's shortly.

Thanking you in anticipation.

Ross

 

Seeing as no one has replied for two days I'll have a go.

I don't understand why you don't want the clover.:wink: Nitrogen fixing and green, it's a healthy addition to any lawn. :thumb: I'd never try to remove it. Forget about all those chemicals, let the grass grow a bit and bring in the insect life , it'll be healthier and more wildlife friendly.

You probably didn't want to hear this but that's my view; much better for the planet.

 

Interesting view Redwing which should be encouraged but until "Mr Jones" adopts that particular technique I will stick to chemical warfare with my garden

Back to your issue Roscopekoe.

Regarding the clover, I had an issue with this stuff in my back lawn and a quick shot of Verdone Extra soon sorted it out. I personally would leave everything to die back,usually a couple of weeks, before areating and then I would work in this order.

1) Put down some autumn lawn feed and mosskiller,I found Evergreen autumn feed very effective.

2) After two or three weeks the moss should be dead and ready for scarifying. Unfortunately your lawn
will probably look lovely and lush and it does seem a shame to cut it and rake it apart.

3) Areate the lawn using a gardening fork, forks facing inwards , and go to a depth of between 3 to 6 ins, I do my rows about 8 ins apart.

4) Topdress, as you say it is easy to make up your own mix but I did use Westland topdressing and
used 75 litres on a 25 sq metre lawn.

5) I have soaked the lawn a couple of time to allow the topdress to settle and I am going to overseed
tomorrow using a mix of seed and a good compost.

Regarding the hollows, these can be filled in by adding about a 3rd of an inch into the hollow, leave to settle and keep repeating until levelled. Alternatively, dig in some compost/ topsoil mix and reseed.

Your lawn is a wonderful shape and large too, should look stunning in spring :thmb:

 

Hi Redwing,

Thanks for your comment re the clover , but i got it into my head I want to get the lawn perfect or at least as best as i can get it. A work colleague came round for a look and made a joke weather we were going to get a special "clover mower" - i promptly showed him my new prized posession an Atco balmoral 17" cylinder mower in need of a little tlc - bargin £16 from ebay :-) at which point he fell about laughing ..so never to be defeated I now intend on getting lawn perfect and level enough for the Atco !

 

Hi Pip,

Thank you for your comments also - well I applied Verdone on Saturday to back and front lawns so will now wait a week or two then areate top dress and seed - also found evergreen autumn in garage so will apply some of that at some point too, what is the latest you would seed ?

Thank you for your kind comments re the lawn - we have an interesting uncultivated area of the garden which is fenced off which we plan to incoprate into the garden pic below - not sure how to go about it but will include pond and veg patch - i will keep you updated on the lawn progress.