Keep lawn looking nice

Hi,

Have just moved into a house and the front lawn is looking nice and green and in good condition but the back is a bit patchy and lacking in colour. Any tips and advice please?

Do I need to feed it and water it much? I have a hose but would need to buy a sprinkler. Oh it's also had a dozen creamy coloured mushrooms spring up in the last 5 days too.

Thanks for any help and advice you can give.

 

If you are one water rates, rather than meter, you are probably not permitted to use a sprinkler (depending on the water board), or they will have a "license" instead of insisting on a meter.

Anyways, shouldn't need watering at this time of year unless you have been bone dry (adding your approx Location to your Personal Details would help )

If you have some patches then now is a good time to over-seed those; you can rough the areas up a bit, and sow some seed. If the area is shady then choose a "shady mix", otherwise just a regular lawn mix (including perennial rye grass) would be fine.

Personally I wouldn't worry about it not looking very green at this time of the year, its best not to add any high Nitrogen fertiliser (which would make it green) at this time of the year as it will make the growth soft, and it really needs to harden up for the Winter now, instead.

It might be that the ground is compacted, and that it why it looks a bit "off". If you have had a really heavy rainstorm this summer? then how quickly did it drain away? If it took 20 minutes or more than it would help to aerate the lawn - you can do that with a fork, but its quite labour intensive (cheaper than gym membership though!), or if you have a large lawn you could hire a motorised tool - the hollow tine aerators are best (compared to ones that just make slits in the lawn); collect the tine cores that are ejected onto the lawn and pile them up, they'll make nice compost whereas if left on the lawn they may cause small bald patches

The grass would appreciate a dressing with an Autumn lawn fertiliser (which will be low Nitrogen). Best to use a spreader when applying that, its likely to be uneven if you try to apply the dressing "by hand".

 

I think that you don't need watering at all. You have mushrooms in your lawn, which kind of means that there is enough moisture in the soil. Your lawn might need some scarification, if you have thatch and too much dead moss in it, too. My personal advice is to call a lawn care company and consult with them. Don't rush into booking their services, just ask for a visitation to see what they will tell you. Use their advice and see if you can manage the job by yourself. If you can't, then you might book a lawn care service.

 

Right I've had a lawn care company out and done what you've suggest by asking their recommendations and of course price!

It looks to be about £300 per year to get treatment. This includes: moss killer now. Solid tine aerating in Jan/Feb. and then every 9 weeks a fertiliser.

I also live in an area where the chafer beetle has laid grub that kills the WHOLE lawn. He said some people have annual spring treatment but if they are spotted (easy to spot) then you can just treat (and lay) at that time. He said the treatment is by license only so I can do this myself - is he right?

The key things he said are:
1. Due to it being sandy ground solid tine is better than hollow for me (hollow more appropriate when clay ground and also more expensive as it's more labour intensive). He said his machine will spike the ground and then wiggle when in the ground creating a good pocket to.... "get the weather into the ground". This treatment is £100.
2. The products I buy off the shelf are not as good as his. His products are slow release and can't be bought by me.
3. It's very time and labour intensive for me to do what he is doing.
4. He will treat worm casts and other things he spots as he goes.

What do you think?
For me, my main concern is paying out this sort of money annually when it's perhaps something I can do myself.

I've looked on eBay and it has a "professional" moss product on there.

Your help and thoughts are appreciated as always guys.

Thanks