COMMUNAL GRASS AREA RENOVATION

Update. Day 8 after seeding. Top dressed with a bit of sand and grass cuttings. Little bit of compost here and there to fill the odd dip or hole.

I have bought a tumbler composter and a wheely bin to so I intend to continue to level the area out as time passes..and top dress if I can produce enough.

 

Day 9

 

Should I use Miracle grow weed and feed to give it a boost and kill newly growing weeds?

 

I wouldn't. Not yet. Others might disagree with me but I'd be reluctant to use anything until the grass is a bit more mature.

I wouldn't worry too much about weeds yet. Once the grass is established enough for you to start mowing, the weeds the mower will control the weeds, unless there's anything particularly pernicious in there.

 

There are enough nutrients in the ground for newly germinated grass. To use either weedkiller or fertiliser on it now would be too strong and possibly kill it.

 

Most herbicides that are selective have guide lines on newly seeded areas. Young plants are susceptible to such herbicides so you run the risk of turf damage.
One fertiliser you can use is Nutri-Gem which is a straight fertiliser so you can adjust the the rates with a correct knapsack calibrated up to the area. The problem is you don’t want to force growth which can lead to problems like disease or less resilient against drought.
Once the lawn is established you can then look at treatments for weeds.

 

Thank you all for the excellent feedback.

 

Here is where I'm at at the moment. Day 15. Obviously a fair emount of seeds got washed away or didn't germinate in the middle due to the sprinkler. I wasn't expecting much more really with very little top dressing and this damn weather but the question is; should I buy a couple of bags of compost and a box of seeds and add more or should I wait and just keep cutting at 2 inches and pulling out the odd weed? TIA

 

It's only day 15 and grass seed can take longer to germinate. I'd leave it another week or so before re-seeding but continue watering.

 

I'd wait too. We're nearly at the end of the first of the two grass seed sowing windows of the year. I'd leave it be, and if it's still patchy when the second window opens at the very back end of summer, then sow some more.

 

Taken on board.. but..

Weather last 2 weeks has already been sub optimal. (pretty hot and almost zero rain) for all we know we could get a mild couple of weeks and plenty of rain in early June..

I'll keep an eye on the forecast. If it looks like it's going to cool and get a bit wetter I'll over seed a little in a few areas. If not, I wont.

Really want a decent lawn for the kids THIS summer if you know what I mean.

 

Do the kids really care what the lawn looks like, I doubt it, and most of the time kids playing on a proper lawn will destroy it, it looks good enough to me for kids to run around on.

 

That is a very good point.. Been running around on dirt the last month and they didn't care haha

 

Let them play on it anyway. I know that goes against all standard lawn advice, but most of that advice is based on developing a perfect bowling green, which you're never going to have if it's going to be well used anyway.

With my lawn, I get the kids involved in it's maintenance. Later in the year, when the second seed sowing window opens, here's a trick I devised that combines top dressing with sharp sand, new seed, and fun for the kids (I don't know how old your kids are, but if they can run, they can do this). Mix seed with sharp sand, and dampen it just enough so it will hold its shape. Make sand castles all over the lawn. Have the kids kick them down. If you're fairly fit, you can try to build the sand castles faster than they can kick them over, so it becomes a game. When it's done and the kids are bored of the game and go in, go round with a grass rake and try to even out the smashed down sand castles.