Garden Lawn Beginner Help Needed.

Hi there,

My names John I live in the south east of England, I have a south east facing garden with stony soil.

I have recently moved into the property with my partner and I am looking at having a very simple lawn I have planted grass seed and its is coming up lovely however it is accompanied by another shrub type thing which looks somewhat like a 2 leaf clover (leaves are similar shape to those on garden hedges)

I just wondered if anyone knew what this was? And if so whether it will hinder the grass?

Any help would be appreciated as I am VERY new to gardening of any sorts.

John

 

Welcome to GC Johno. It's very difficult to identify any weed or plant with just a description, close up pictures if possible would be a great help. Is it possible to pull or dig them out or are there to many. Unfortunately with your lawn being in it's early stages using a weedkiller would be harmful, however there are gel killers available that you brush onto the leaves.

 

Hello and welcome

Like Sheal said, pics are the way to go, so we can see what the problem is.

In my experience though, it is not at all unusual for a few weeds to come up along with the grass when you seed a freshly prepared area. I'm pretty sure that sometimes the weed seeds are present in the lawn seed. But also in my experience, it doesn't pose a problem as long as you follow a good lawn care regime.

Creeping buttercup is a slight exception. Its a bit of a pain if you don't want it as its hard to get rid of but even that's not so bad.

Unless there are more weeds than grass, I'd just let the lawn develop for now, weeds and all. You'll need a mower with adjustable cutting height and good sharp blades soon enough. Once the grass is maybe a 3 inches tall, set your mower to its highest cutting height and mow, just once a fortnight at first. The grass will start to thicken up.

As the weeks pass, your lawn will start to look like a lawn, albeit too long and with weeds in it. By about mid summer you can start to lower the cutting height on the mower, but, don't use 'scalp mode' this year. With the lower cutting height, most weeds will be weakened so much that they can no longer compete with the grass and grass, which thrives from being cut (its evolved to thrive from being grazed by animals), will grow with increasing vigour, further tipping the balance in favour of grass over weed.

Unfortunately this doesn't work for all weeds. I hate to call clover a weed because its welcome in my lawn (so is therefore not a weed to me) but some call it a weed, but anyway, some clovers pose a slight problem if you don't want it, as they grow so flat to the ground that the mower just rides over the top of them. Creeping buttercup is less of a problem, as enough of it protrudes up to cutting height to get topped but it takes a while. In any case, once the lawn has established itself, you could use verdone to get rid. You can also use the rake to sort of lift it a bit so the mower can get at it.

 

Hi sheal and clueless, thanks for both your replies. I will try and get some pictures tomorrow and upload them. Sheal there arent too many to get rid of although it will be quite a tenious and long process. They do have roots that come up very easily. However my reservation with doing this is that I think they will probably come back through again. Clueless that sounds hopeful as they certainly arent outnumbering the grass they are growing in patches but at the moment dont seem to be affecting the grass. Thanks for the other info around cutting of grass and thickening the lawn. That will certainly help me in getting it coming through lush and green
I will get some pictures tomorrow and then come back