(more) new lawn problems

Hi

There seem to be a number of threads about new lawn problem...i have one too, probably self induced. Laid my new turf about 3 months ago and it looked absolutely fantastic after three weeks and its first mow. I then left it for about 6 weeks - very busy at work etc. Although it looked very lush and green before mowing, there were a few areas where the grass was browning and a bit stubbly. The grass was still growing all over but a lot more thinly spread. Have just mowed again and spent an age raking out dead browned grass. Although it still looks ok from a distance, it is hardly lush, quite stubbly and a bit bare in places.

Is there any treatment i can give it at this age?

Thanks for any advice, mark

 

hi mcmac74

im not expert but will try to help

couple of questions could do with knowing though

what was your turf layed on ? did you put any top soil down before laying ?

if not then that might have something to do with it going abit thin not much goodness for it to get going ,

the turf always looks fab when putting it down but needs to be kept off and not touched for at least 6 weeks or untill completly rooted .

in the bare places i would re-seed it and for the rest of it i would feed it with lawn food ,

i use blood,fish & bone its very cheap and really makes the lawn lush but you have to be very careful as it can also burn the lawn,

i put it on last thing at night after soaking the lawn but use it thinly or you could use a proper lawn food theres one called aftercut thats quite good but its �£6 + where as the blood fish & bone is about �£1.70 evergreen is also a good make .
this is proberly a silly question with all the rain we have had lately but did you water it well in ?

i think that leaving it 6 weeks after its fist mow won't have helped much its best to do it once a week in summer if you can ,
after all the rain we had i could'nt get to do mine for 3 weeks and it was very long and after i mowed it i got some brown patches where the mower had torn at it but popped some blood fish stuff on and its coming back nice now.

hope i have helped a little and good luck

 

Thanks Cattwomen

The turf was laid on the soil bed left after i took up all the old turf. Standard new build soil but i dug it over well and got a lot of rubble out. Yep, i did water well and kept off it, guess i just got lazy with the mowing

I'll be taking your advice, getting some seed down and putting some feed on. Hopefully it'll recover. By the way, whats good for keeping birds off the seed?...... and can i put the feed on now whilst there's seed there...?

Thanks a lot, Mark

 

hi mcmac74

best thing i have found for keeping birds off apart from borrowing my cat :D is putting sticks in the ground where the seed is them type you get for holding plants up or any type really and run round it with cotton or string that puts them off as it flaps in the wind and also stops cats from having a no:2 as they will get a short sharp shock :eek:

as for the feed i would lightly feed the rest of the lawn but avoid the seeded area .

mmmmmmmmmmmmm i think maybe that the soil that you layed it on was'nt at its best but eh ho a little tlc and it should be fine.


good luck

 

Hi Mark,
When laying turf it should be staggered like bricks and the edges infilled with compost. You will get some die back especially at the edges so the lawn shouldnt be edge to the finish line until established. Grass grows from the bottom so the more you cut it, the thicker it will get. I feed with a liquid lawn food called Lawn Magic. [mail order from ]www.superspray.co.uk] Its proffessionl based product and is not expensive per sq metre. If yopu apply pellets and it doesnt rain soon after the lawn may burn. Liquid feeds dont have this problem. If the lawn is a decent size you can apply it quickly with their hose end sprayer. Its worth a look at their website.

It takes time for a lawn to become established. so dont expect too much too quickly. I recall a little story which goes " an American asked the gardener at Winsor Castle how he got the lawns looking so fantastic. Easy! just keep mowing and feeding for three hundred years.....

 

thanks both, will let you know how it goes

 

Hi Mcmac,

We had new turf laid at the end of April, after 8 weeks or so I was very disapointed with it, it was full of meadow grass had lots of bare bits and then developed red thread with all the rain and big patches looked dead! It now looks so much better and is really thick and green, here's what I did:

Improved the drainage by going round the whole thing, especially the middle with a garden fork, sticking it all the way in and wiggling to create holes (back breaking work I am afraid).

Replaced Lawn Mower as the old one was shedding the grass and causing it to go brown at the ends.

Used aftercut fertiliser every three of four weeks

Mowed twice a week on the highest cut level, for the last couple of weeks have reduced cut hight to medium and still mowing twice a week

I am sure the better weather has helped loads as well, In fact it has started looking a bit dry this week so we are watering it again!

I think a combination of a bit of care and just some more time for it to bed in will hopefully sort it out. I was devestated with mine a few weeks ago but it's amazing how it can recover - try not to worry, EGW xx