COMMUNAL GRASS AREA RENOVATION

Hello all.

I am renovating a communal grass area so my kids have a decent lawn to play on. It's not mine so I don't want to spend loads.

I have purchased quality lawn seed a cheap scarifier and I have killed off the most of the weeds and brambles with weed killer prior to cutting everything g low and beginning to scarify.

My main question is, if I leave the detritus from scarifying on the lawn will it aid to provide moisture and nutrients or should I Rake and dispose of it?

Also, in approx 2 weeks I p,an 2 cut the remaining grass back, scarifying quickly once more and then overseeding. My next question is; can I use scattered grass clipping to top dress and hopeful,y keep seeds moist?

TIA

 

Hello and welcome to GC Best not to leave the thatch on the surface as it will stop the new grass seed coming into contact with the soil. It would also be better to collect the first clippings as I'm pretty sure they'd suffocate/overheat the new grass. Once that's well established then yes, leaving the mowings in situ will help to improve soil moisture retention, as long as they're finely chopped and not left in big clumps

 

What was the weed killer and how long ago was it applied.

as above you need a nice clean surface before seeding so a good rake, blow or even a mow to collect it is the first job. You will need to apply some top dressing with the seed to get a good germination rate.

 

Approx. 2 weeks ago for weedkilling with glyphosate.

It's an area of approx 200m2 so I want to avoid top dressing with soil as we are looking into 2 tons+ which I can't really justify for an area that I don't own.

I was hoping that to scarify heavily which I'm doing and then seed and then use the roller on the back of the mower to roll over and potentially even top dress with a light amount of grass mulch chippings to hold moisture might be enough?

 

If you've cleared it, you now have a rare opportunity to properly assess the soil. This will pay dividends in the long run as a slightly bigger effort now will significantly reduce corrective action later.

Do you know, does the area drain well? Is the soil that's there lovely and dark and loose or is it heavy clay, or the opposite end of the spectrum, sandy or peaty etc?

Where I am, I'd mix the seed with sharp sand and scatter the mix. That works for our local soil type but might not work so well for other soil conditions. If the soil is already nice, then adding more soil would be a waste of time, money and effort. But if it's just red clay, then not top dressing now will be to doom your new lawn to years of high maintenance.

 

Dark, drains well it seems and it used to be a field of wild grass, mainly Sedge so I imagine the soil is half decent quality. Had some bricks and the usual detritus which I'm removed mostly. I've left the clipping down at the moment in the hope that some will decay and provide some nourishment to the soil in the interim.

Here's 2 during and during photos.

 

I'm also currently germinating 25 Boston Ivy seed in a propogator to plant around the border and cover those lichen ridden walls.

I have convered a weely bin into a composter and I have bought another 150 litre rotating composter with the plan to slowly add compost to the dips and divitts around the grass area.

 

The soil looks nice from what I can tell from the pics. I'd still clear the clippings. Yes, they'll break down and return nutrients to the soil, but not in the timeframes you're talking about. In the meantime, they'll just inhibit the growth of your new seed.

It's hard to be sure without getting one's hands dirty and actually feeling the soil, but from the pics it looks to me like the old sharp sand and seed mix trick would be good. The advantage of mixing the seed in sharp sand, apart from that grass likes sand because it helps keep the surface loose for the roots to penetrate, is that you can see where you've done. When you scatter the seed, you'll have a job seeing it. You'll inevitably double up in some places, and miss patches. If you mix with sharp sand, you'll easily see where you've already got coverage.

 

That seems very logical. What do you recommend? Mixing seeds with sand 50/50 and scattering that way?

 

It's hard to say what ratio is correct. I'm sure companies that make their money selling sharp sand will have a formula that tells you that you need loads.

For me, it's about experiment and judgement. If I was taking on your project, I'd buy one 20kg bag and mix some of it in a bucket with a load of seed, then scatter it on a small area. If you then pour the watering can over it, the sand being heavier than the seed, you'll see much of the seed on the surface. For a large area, given that the soil looks ok, I think I'd want the sand to serve more as a marker than anything else, so you'd probably get away with a greater density of seed relative to the sand and then just spread it thin. In my case, because when I last did it it was on soil with a heavy clay content, I went for more sand than seed, because I wanted the sand to serve as a top dressing for improved aeration.

 

Thank you very much.

 

Updates...

The question is; is one stubborn crow enough to eat all the seed before they germinate??

 

I've reseeded a few lawns. Sure the birds nick some of the seeds, but I've never had a problem with it. Unless you get an entire flock descend on it, I reckon there'll be enough seed remaining to get it established.

 

Quick one. I have low pressure from an indoor tap so I have to keep moving this sprinkler around to get coverage.

I'm thinking of buying a 2500 litres per hour pump. Filling a 200 litre water pump and just blasting the whole place in 4 mins or so per time. Will a sprinkler perform adequately under such circumstances?

Obviously it's been nothing but blazing sun since the day I seeded and forecasts are for much the same....