Is it now too late to sow a new lawn? Northern Ireland

Thanks as always guys, with regards to maintenance I would ideally like to keep things to a minimum as far as possible.

I plan to buy a ride on to handle the cutting but thats a whole new topic for another day.

redwing I like the idea of "leave some areas long for growing bulbs and flowers in" I have an area along the side of the drive way that contains quite a few trees so would be a pain to cut with a ride on. My original plan was to use meadow mix or simalar wild flowers to introduce some colour and intrest but have been advised that the ground is to fertile and its expensive. So I like the idea of letting the grass grow long in these areas and introduce some bulbs.

Can I ask what flowers you have introduced here and if you need to rebulb each year? Also would you just tend to cut this area at the end of the season?

I very tempted to go with Dwarf rye on the main larger areas (Verdun do you have a particular brand or type in mind that I should be trying to source?)

And redwing can I ask what mixture you used in the areas that you let grow long?

Many thanks.

P.S. One of the seed suppliers that I seen mentioned on here is Hurrells Seeds. I just need to figure out how cost effective it is to have them deliver to N.I?

 

I really feel you are over thinking this devs.......forget brands, etc. You could pay a small fortune for seed unnecessarily.
You want a large area of nice looking, reasonably drought resistant grass, right? Sowing a lawn is not complicated; most of us do this.
A generally available dwarf rye MIX will tick all the boxes
(The best fine grass seed will produce a top quality lawn IF you maintain it to almost obsessional degrees, spike it every 2 or 3 weeks, aerate and scarify it, top dress it, mow it with the finest cylinder mower every day or two, water it every other day and dont play on it. Over1.5 acres this will be a full time job; besides it will not look any better than a general purpose mixture...dwarf rye, etc.......lawn.)

 

Yeah fair comments mate! I suppose its like anything.. if you haven't done it before you dont want to make a hash of it, even more so when its a large area. Many thanks for the help

 

Hi all and sorry for resurrecting an old post. But... I was talking with a local landscaper recently and he suggested that I consider using a Fescue bents seed (due to its slow growing nature) and mix in some wild flowers seeds and daffodil, snowdrop bulbs etc and that I can expect to only need to cut twice a year with a strimmer.


This sounds ideal for me as it would remove the need for an expensive ride on. Save me time that I do not have to be cutting the grass. I also feel that this style of lawn would suit the area and property well.


I would love to hear your thoughts on this type of seed and from anyone that has done similar. The area that I'm working with is around 1.5 acres.


Many thanks!

 

The choice of seed seems a good 1 but I do see 1 snag with your idea. I have a bank adjacent to a small burn. It is solidly planted with Daffodils as you can see. I leave cutting this areas from latish Autumn until the leaves of the Daffodils have started to turn brown (about end of June) then strim down the Daffodils and the grass growing in amongst the Daffodil leaves. However, by this time the grass is about 2 to 3 ft high. Add in the Daffodil leaves and that is quite a lot of green waste. To allow the grass to regrow and make the area look decent we have to remove the strimmed down waste and this is a hellish job dreaded every year! If this wasn't done I doubt the grass would regrow very well being choked with cut down greenery. The area is nothing like 1.5 acres. How would you cope with removing the huge volume of strimmed material? There is good reason why people have the odd pet sheep/goats.

 

Hi there and many thanks for the reply.

Firstly your garden looks great!

I really appreciate what you are saying and its not something that I have fully considered. I agree that the clean up after strimming the area will be slow work but wouldn't this out weigh the continual work required to maintain over the growing season?

I'm not shy of hard work but would sooner spend my free time with my kids and family as they are young and sooo much fun. I feel that two days work could strim and clear the land if two of use were at it?

I do not envisage the density of daffs to be the same as what you have done (looks great btw) and use them in a more random add hoc manner.

I'm curious to know more about the Fescue bents seed.. Has anyone used this at home? How does the price point sit compared to other standard seeds?

Many thanks,

Devs.

 

Thank you @devs for you kind words. The daffodils weren't so dense a few years ago they bulk up quite quickly!
I am no expert on different grasses but there are some GC members who are knowledgeable so perhaps 1 of them will answer your questions re Fescue better than I. As you don't intend to cut the grass often then maybe Fescue might not suit as I think it's what golf courses use, however this could well be wrong. The only grass I personally have knowledge of and sown is pasture mix as have needed to resow/repair grazing land. You could do worse than phoning 1 of the grass seed companies and ask their opinion. I think you would need to cut the grass a few times once germinated so as to thicken it up during the 1st season post sowing tho, again others on here may be able to be more specific/knowledgeable than I.
Re wild flowers. Oh boy so many think getting a wild meadow look is easy....wrong, it's really difficult to get a good mixture as the strong growers overwhelm the lesser ones. I saw 2 years ago the dreadful results of a manufactured wild meadow area at a house now owned by a trust that Prince Charles is involved with. Not good and who knows how many gardeners have been working to try and achieve what nature seems quite good at.
Agree clumps of daffodils in certain areas would look good and Snowdrops too but remember Snowdrops will not really be seen to good effect unless the grass is quite short. I have a bank with 1000s of Snowdrops in it. I always try and strim this around the end of October so the grass is still short come about now.
Yes 2 able bodied should be able to clear the strimmed greenery in a couple of days without needing to be hospitalised! I would try to do the strimming when the grass etc is dry it's much easier and less heavy. It's also easier and quicker to rake the greenery into piles and then collect it. A grass rake makes a good job of collecting the grass etc, much better than a metal headed rake. .
Once established I can see your idea working however living where you do, not being the driest!you may have to resort to cutting the area 3 times a year. For a much better look, height and habitat for wild life I would strongly suggest you consider planting some tress. Apart from being careful not to strim into the bark, trees pretty well look after themselves and help to take up excess rainfall. If budget is an issue you can purchase native seedlings/whips for very little money.

 

I think mowing only twice per year is too optimistic, you will need to do it more depending on where you live. Most mowers won’t be up to only mowing twice per year either. You’ll need a robust garden tractor mower to cope with that IMO. Silu is absolutely right about the difficulties of establishing a wildflower meadow. I’ve been trying with very limited success for a few years and have pretty much given up in favour or spring bulbs and flowers on a sunny bank and mowing from June onwards with more hopeful results so far. You are right to use fescues though; they are less vigorous than some of the courser grasses. Sheeps fescue is often recommended, which can be bought straight but is pricey.

 

How much ground are you talking about and it’s relationship to open grass areas?

 

Hi all and apologies for the late reply, I’ve been stacked out :(


That’s correct Fescue is the same grass that is used on golf courses and bowling greens. I believe that it is very slow growing? The person that mention this to me is a local landscaper and ex golf course grounds man.


I’ve been told a few times about the complexities of wild flowers and also told that my soil is to fertile for them to grow and I would need to bring an alternative soil in. That’s not something that I interested in doing.


I suppose rather than wild flowers I will just plant a few different bulbs along the drive way and around trees to add a little interest.


Many thanks for the tip about the grass rake, I haven’t actually ever seen one like that so will keep an eye out for one.


We have plenty of Trees around the area so no need to be replanting at this stage.


The area is approx. 1.5 acres and ‘relatively’ (ish) open and manageable.


Just to recap I was suggestion to sew Fescue bents and allow to grow long and cut with a strimmer approximately two times a year.


Has anyone ever used Fescue bents on a residential lawn and more so allowed it to grow long and strim?


Thanks again, Devs.

 

Just a thought @devs and thinking slightly "out of the box". You say you have plenty of trees but had you thought of planting trees as a crop to be harvested for firewood say, no real need to do that much maintenance and sounds as tho you don't really want to use the land as such. This is a somewhat long term idea so only would suit if you intend staying for a while. Alternatively there might be a demand for people to use the land a la an allotment for growing veg etc. You could make a few bob by renting the land but that could mean you loose some privacy?
Certainly I would be extremely surprised if there is any type of grass which will produce a reasonable covering without being cut quite often initially which equals hard work and the need for some sort of machine to cut it. I'd ask your local landscaper if a newly sown "field" would cope with only being strimmed 2 times in the 1st year.
I have a slight interest in the response to this question as I have an area (about 1/2 acre) which had commercial kennels on it. These were demolished and ground levelled. Unlike you there is b all topsoil (who knows where it went) and I can confirm wild flowers grew brilliantly on the area within a couple of months!
Post historic stone picking which is nearly finished I will be sowing grass this Spring as I wish to turn the area into grazing but I am presuming that I will need to cut the area quite a few times to get the grass to thicken up. I have no desire to do this but think it is necessary? Any fields around here are always cut regularly when newly put down to grass and us gardeners are pretty well mimicking farming in miniature.

 

Good thinking Silu, I love using the woodburner and fortunately have access to wood so no real need to plant additional trees.

The main area of land is opposite the house and I suppose that this is the area that I'm least interested in at the moment as there is a natural divide from the house via a dry brook.

I may use this land in future for camping pods but no immediate plans. Red area

I'm just off the phone with a very helpful lady from lawnuk and she suggested the following..

To use a Low mow seed (70% sheep fescue, 20% chewings fescue and 10% bent fescue)

And also mix in some "corn field colour". As this will grow in fertile soil:

80% Low Maintenance Grass Blend

20% of the following flora blend:

8% Poppy

25% Cornflower

17% Corn Marigold

40% Corn Cockle

10% Corn Cockle

For me this sounds like a good route to take and I can 'loosely' maintain the main area around the house and let the rest go pretty much wild for the kids to play in.

The trees have been thinned out since this image was taken.

 

Sounds good @devs. Looks like a lovely spot you live in ...from the air anyway.Certainly with the number of trees you have even if thinned your land shouldn't be too wet.I could see it turning into a football pitch/riding arena in time when your young? children get older.
I thought about possibly putting a couple of decent log cabins on our bit of land as holiday lets as I live in an area which is popular with tourists, however we all decided that our privacy and tranquillity is more important than making a few bob.
If you can get the ground prepared and sown around early April that would be ideal as that is before weed seeds would be germinating. It's also a good idea to roll the area post germination but you may not have enough access or indeed access to a roller. As you appear to live in the countryside maybe you could get the local farmer to roll the area for you in exchange for a few "jars". Leaf fall will inhibit grass from growing (you don't see grass growing in woods!) so I'd concentrate on getting the middle bit sorted and use the areas under the trees for lots of daffodils,crocus, aconites and snowdrops.
All will grow happily under deciduous trees.

These and daffodils are growing under an enormous Lime which has been aged at around 200 years old. Once the tree comes into leaf it is really dark under the tree's canopy but the bulbs don't seem to mind or the fact it's bone dry between about end of May until Autumn EVEN here in Scotland!

 

Thanks a lot Silu, yes is a lovely spot - its been hard work but I'm breaking the back of it now thankfully.

Its funny what you said about the cabins and that is our thought also. We also live in a very popular tourists are but would also rather have the privacy and tranquillity Its nice to have options I suppose.

I'm aiming to get it sowed in April and have been busy trying to prepare the land the best I can prior to having it rotovated. Charging around removing stones and boulders.

I think the Low mow seed that was mentioned should work well and potentially be relatively low maintenance in the areas that I would like to go wild.

So the process that I should be following is to remove stones > rotovate > remove stones > seed > roll? Is that correct?

Thanks for attaching the image, it looks great and exactly what I'm wanting to achieve.

 

I would say yes, it's more or less what I am doing but I'm not going to rotovate (going to rake to give a key to the soil) as the thought of another 30 odd tonnes of stone being brought to the surface would quietly polish me off! You also have the "slight" problem of what the hell to do with tonnes of stone The big ones you can always use to make a wall but the others are just a pain. My area is only for a horse to eventually graze in and anybody who knows anything about horses will tell you that they can muck up a field quicker than a Sherman tank so I'm not going to be too fussy.However hard you try, stone will, as if by magic make it's way to the surface, however once you have the grass established it's not such a chore to wander round, glass of something in hand on a nice evening picking them up. Maybe you could get your children involved with a little bribery.