My lawn is driving me crazy ...

Hi,

I moved into my house in May 2007 and the Garden was a mess and I wanted to have a nice (not perfect lawn)

So in August 2007, I had towards the end of the garden rotovated and turfed, I had some die back around the edges but all was quite well, the new turf didn't knit well with the old lawn at the front of the garden but overall I was really pleased

During Spring and Summer 2008, I mowed the lawn at least once per week @36mm (sometimes twice), applied liquid weed and feed in the Spring and liquid feed in the Summer, I noticed that if I ever took my lawn down to 27mm it looked very yellow and not very nice. Basically by cutting it a bit higher mean that it was hiding some of the yellow patches with the help of the roller on the back of my mower.

I wasn't happy, so in September 2008 I scarified the whole lawn, top dressed and overseeded it. The lawn cam back brilliantly but during the winter large patches have again gone quite yellow. Since the start of the Spring I've lowered the height gradually and have been cutting it twice per week @ 27mm, I have fed it liquid lawn feed once (not weed and feed) about 3 weeks ago but it's looking very yellow in places.

I've sharpended the blades on my mower which is a Honda HRX476QXE and am cutting in different directions but I have no idea what to do next, short of calling our Green Thumb.

I have included a few pics

Can anybody help?

Thanks, Nick

 

Is the ground too compacted for the grass roots to penetrate? Also do you get visits from cats and dogs, whose urine can adversely affect grass? One other suspect (according to my book - I've never experienced this one personally) is the old daddy long legs fly thingy (can't remember its proper name), which lays its eggs in the ground and its young promptly chew up the roots, killing the grass from underneath.

 

You're thinking of leatherjackets Clueless-I get them every year.

 

Sorry if naive question: are you sure the way you are measuring cutting height it "accurate"?

Having said that, the lawn doesn't look as though it has been scalped ...

For my money, a "nice" lawn needs a cylinder, not a rotary mower, but I expect to be shot down in flames for suggesting that!

 

Hi JWK - last year I tried cutting higher but I found that it only disguised the underlying problem. My books tell me I should be cutting 1-1.5 inches.

Hi Clueless1 - we don't have bad compaction. We don't get any dogs, not may cats but the odd few foxes. I was thinking about Leatherjackets but wasn't sure ... I was hoping somebody here could tell me.

 

Hi Kristen - I set the mower height according to a guage on the mower - the instruction booklet tells me the height of each position on the mower.

 

OK, sounds reasonable. And certainly the pictures you have provided look like its being cut to a reasonable height.

Sorry, I don't know the answer as to the possible cause.

 

Leatherjackets are certainly a possible cause, are the birds going bonkers over your lawn at the moment ( quite a delicacy if you are a starling I'm told)?

 

We have a few blackbirds on the lawn, nothing out of the ordinary though ....

 

Do you think it may be a Nitrogen problem?

 

Another way of telling is if there a blades of grass just nipped off at the base-they only eat that bit apparently.

Of course you could set an day aside to spend watching the bare-ish patches with a G&T in hand-probably the option I would take lol.

 

Your lawn doesn't look all that bad to me, I would assume there would be yellowing and general loss of vigour if it was nitrogen-plus, you have fed it already.

 

You need to scarify the lawn as it looks to me like dead grass( picture 5) but unless the ground is moist and the grass growing well I wouldn't do it now but leave it until end of Sept being of Oct.

Also it looks as if the lawn is shady in parts and its probably advisable to this area abit higher than the sunny parts.

Feeding it will not get rid of the thatch.

and those little lawn rakers are not upto it, hire a decent machine

 

It could be leatherjackets but I would say its more likely a buildup of thatch.

Scarify with a petrol carifiyer then feed with a strong souloution of iron sulphate, around two cups per 10 litres of water. Iron sulphate will give imediate green up.

Cutting twice weekly and low puts a fair bit of stress on the lawn so monthly feeding is needed, id apply iron sulphate twice a month and a high nitrogen liquid feed once per month.